Derek Thompson

more of like a direct pipeline of Silicon Valley straight to D.C.

I mean, David Sachs, who's in charge fully of AI policy in the White House, is a co-host of the podcast of Silicon Valley.

And that brings us to the doorstep of this showdown between Anthropic and the Department of War, which I described in the open and you know all too well.

Why do you think this showdown and the announcement of supply chain restrictions, why do you think this was such a remarkable and important move from the White House?

I mean, you said in a great essay, Claude, C-L-A-W-E-D, on Substack, that this was akin to an almost Chinese Maoist move to remove private property rights on behalf of a company.

I mean, it's that significant.

It's that clear an attack on freedom.

I've spoken to folks from the Trump administration, and the case that they would make, the reason that they think they're on solid ground with this attempt to essentially nuke Anthropic from orbit, is that they'll say, look, if Lockheed Martin sells the U.S.

government a fighter jet

They do not have the right to say, and oh, by the way, don't use this jet to bomb Iran, right?

Don't fly in the Middle East.

Anthropic does not have the right to request case-by-case permission to use a technology that is in the employ of our military and national security systems.

And to take the dramatic example that I heard over and over again, this is what I kept hearing.

If China fires a hypersonic missile at the US and we need AI-directed autonomous technology that uses Claude, Anthropic, to disrupt that missile,

We cannot call or have to call Dario Amadei's office and get put on hold while this hypersonic missile is speeding toward an aircraft in the Pacific to get permission from Anthropic to use their technology to defend America.

We're currently in the very, very strange situation where I am representing the Trump administration, arguing against a former member of the Trump administration, but continuing this play act.

How do you respond to that defense of the Pentagon?

Just stepping out of the play act here, I have the same feeling.

That the gotta call Dario Amadei's executive assistant and get put on hold when the hypersonic missile is passing toward the U.S.

felt a little bit to me like a hypothetical that had slowly gained the weight of fact, if that makes sense.