Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says ‘we are patriotic Americans’ committed to defending the U.S. but won’t budge on ‘red lines’

President Donald Trump has accused Anthropic of endangering troops and jeopardizing national security, but CEO Dario Amodei said his company is patriotic.

In an interview with CBS News soon after Trump ordered the federal government to stop working with Anthropic, Amodei pointed out that the AI startup was the first to serve the defense community in a classified setting.

“I believe we have to defend our country from autocratic adversaries like China and like Russia,” he said. “And so we’ve been very lean forward. We have a substantial public sector team.”

While Anthropic has provided its AI to the government, the Pentagon demanded unfettered use in all legal scenarios. But the company maintained it has “red lines,” namely its use in domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.

Talks failed to produce an agreement, leading Trump to ban Anthropic from government agencies, while giving the Pentagon a six-month phaseout period.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also called the company a “...