Here is a sentence that would have sounded absurd a few months ago: “We trust Anthropic.” It comes from US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, talking to Axios reporter Mike Allen. Asked whether he trusts Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Lutnick said: “They’ve done what we asked. They’re back on the right side. So the answer is: Yes.”
A quick reminder of how bad things were. Earlier this year the Trump administration and Anthropic clashed so hard that the government slapped sweeping export controls on the company’s most advanced models. The Pentagon labeled Anthropic a supply-chain risk because the company refused to let Claude be used for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic sued. In August, a federal judge struck down the blacklisting, ruling that it violated Anthropic’s constitutional rights. A second Pentagon designation under a different statute is still pending at the D.C. Circuit.
And now: a handshake. Lutnick gave his interview on Tuesday. On Wednesday he stood on stage at the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and personally introduced a guest to the assembled ministers: Tom Brown, one of Anthropic’s founders. “Anthropic, of course, is famous, but a little story helps,” Lutnick said, and handed Brown the floor.
Brown, in turn, praised a Truth Social post in which President Trump had called data centers an “enormous source of prosperity.” Data centers create jobs and taxes, Brown said, and the way Anthropic designs them, they bring new power onto the grid. He also pointed to Anthropic’s support for the administration’s ratepayer pledge.
According to Axios, Brown had been the key figure behind the scenes for months. He held several conversations with Lutnick and with National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross. While Amodei was the public face of the conflict, Brown apparently rewired the relationship.
What strikes me about this: as far as anyone knows, Anthropic did not give up its red lines with the military. The fight over surveillance and autonomous weapons was won in court, not negotiated away. Yet Lutnick says the company has “done what we asked.” He doesn’t say what that was. Maybe in Washington it is enough to say the right things about data centers in public and send the right co-founder. For a company heading toward an IPO, a sentence like that from the Commerce Secretary is worth more than any benchmark.
Sources: Axios: Lutnick: Anthropic is ‘back on the right side’ with Trump administration, Reuters via Investing.com: Anthropic back on ‘right side’ with Trump administration