Trump says White House has ‘CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power’ over AI

President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday that the only “control or guardrails” that AI needs is “a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump said the Trump Administration “has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!) [Amodei], who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel.’”

In the same post, Trump said “we already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies” and warned: “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! … Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!” Trump also claimed “there is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China.”

UPI reported the post on Friday as part of its coverage of an appeals court ruling in a long-running dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon over the AI company’s restrictions on its products’ use. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 on Friday that the Trump administration can designate Anthropic a national security risk and bar the company from Pentagon contracts.

The majority opinion, written by Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, found that the Defense Department “had ample support for its conclusion” that Anthropic’s AI products pose a supply-chain risk to the agency and its contractors. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson dissented. According to UPI, the ruling expands the power of the executive branch to blacklist U.S. businesses.

The dispute traces to July 2025, when Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the Pentagon. After the agreement, Chief Executive Dario Amodei said Claude could not be used for mass surveillance or for autonomous weapons without human approval. The Pentagon said it did not want any restrictions on its use.

On Feb. 27, the Defense Department gave Anthropic a 5 p.m. deadline to comply with demands for unrestricted government use. Before the deadline, Trump announced that no government workers would be allowed to use Anthropic. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth then designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk — a label typically used for companies doing business with the Chinese government that are considered a major national security risk — effectively blocking the firm from federal contracts.

Anthropic sued on March 9, alleging the Pentagon applied the designation inappropriately to punish it on ideological grounds. On March 27, a federal judge said the administration’s effort to block the company was “illegitimate and likely illegal.” On Aug. 28, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin formally ruled the designation was illegal, finding that Hegseth had exceeded his authority.

In Friday’s majority opinion, the D.C. Circuit acknowledged Anthropic’s record. “We have no quarrel with the Northern District’s conclusion that Anthropic has acted with no … bad motive in its dealings with the Department,” the judges wrote. “But … no such bad motive is required to support a designation under the much broader definition set forth in” the 2018 law.

Henderson, in dissent, said the statute’s context and history show it was meant only for malicious actors engaged in “intentionally subversive and deceptive acts.”

Anthropic spokeswoman Danielle Cohen told Politico that the company disagrees with the Friday ruling. “Another federal court has already held the government’s parallel designation unlawful,” Cohen said. “We remain confident in our position and are considering all options, including further review.”

The majority pointed to code Anthropic embeds in its models that restricts users from deploying Claude for certain tasks. Anthropic has said it will not allow its AI products to be used for autonomous weapons or for mass domestic surveillance.