Trump Blasts AI Companies, Calls for Strong President as Guardrail

On Monday, former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that a “sick conspiracy” is being waged against artificial intelligence and the data centers that host it by a group he called “Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers.” He made the remarks two days after the heads of the largest American AI firms publicly urged their industry to slow the pace of development. Trump said the United States already has sufficient criminal and regulatory power to keep AI companies in check and that the only guardrails needed are a “strong and smart” president.

In his post Trump singled out Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, describing him as pretending to be a “perfect little angel” and claiming the administration has already stopped “bad” AI activity. He did not specify the conduct in question or the conspirators he alleged. Trump added that China was the only country pleased with the supposed conspiracy and that whoever wins AI wins, asserting that the U.S. is leading the competition.

Amodei had published an essay on Saturday calling for AI companies to deliberately slow the rate at which they improve model capabilities, warning that within six to twelve months a swarm of rogue agents could take over the internet and cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. He said Anthropic would give external evaluators employee‑level access to verify safety procedures and urged competitors to do the same. In response, OpenAI chief Sam Altman agreed that the frontier should be paced and announced that his company would also open itself to external review. Elon Musk and Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis also expressed support for Amodei’s position.

The debate came amid a negative market reaction: Nasdaq futures fell over 1 percent and chip stocks such as Intel, Micron and Nvidia slid 5‑6 percent. Shares of SoftBank and European suppliers to data‑center construction also fell. Trump’s remarks arrive as the White House has been arguing with Anthropic for nearly a year. Former AI policy official David Sacks has accused the company of pursuing a regulatory‑capture strategy. The administration has urged AI firms to pace development without seeking antitrust waivers, and critics argue Amodei’s motives may be commercial rather than ethical, suggesting that slowing open‑source progress could concentrate power within Anthropic.