THIN SKINNED

Trump Plots Petty Revenge on CEO Who Called Him ‘Dictator’

The move against AI company Anthropic could happen as soon as this week.

President Donald Trump is plotting to punish artificial intelligence company Anthropic after its CEO blasted him for demanding “dictator-style praise,” according to a report.

Sources told Axios that the White House is preparing an executive order to instruct the government to completely remove Anthropic’s AI model from all federal operations.

The move would escalate the Trump administration’s battle with Anthropic. The Pentagon has already designated the artificial intelligence company a “supply chain risk” in an unprecedented step that will cut Anthropic’s technology off from Pentagon partners.

On Monday, the AI giant announced it is suing the government over what it called an “unlawful campaign of retaliation,” arguing that the company, a top Pentagon contractor, is being punished because it has refused to lift safeguards and allow the military unfettered use of its AI tool, Claude.

The order targeting Anthropic could be issued within days, an unnamed source told Axios. A White House official added that “any policy announcement will come directly from” the president and that “discussion about potential executive orders is speculation.”

Last week, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei apologized after writing in a staff memo that the reason the president and the Defense Department were feuding with Anthropic is that “we haven’t given dictator-style praise to Trump,” while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was willing to flatter the president.

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“We have supported AI regulation, which is against their agenda. We’ve told the truth about a number of AI policy issues (like job displacement), and we’ve actually held our red lines with integrity,” Amodei wrote.

In a March 5 statement published on the company’s website, Amodei apologized for the “tone” of the memo, which had been leaked to the press. “It does not reflect my careful or considered views,” he added.

In its lawsuit challenging the administration’s blacklisting efforts, Anthropic argued that the Constitution does not allow the government to “wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech.”

In a statement, White House spokesperson Liz Huston said Trump cannot allow a “radical left, woke company to jeopardize our national security by dictating how the greatest and most powerful military in the world operates.”

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“The president and Secretary of War [Pete Hegseth] are ensuring America’s courageous warfighters have the appropriate tools they need to be successful and will guarantee that they are never held hostage by the ideological whims of any Big Tech leaders,” she added.

The Daily Beast has contacted Anthropic for comment.

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