Donald Trump claims ‘sick conspiracy’ against AI is helping China, rejecting calls for regulationBy Brad Ryan in Washington DC
Posted Tue 15 Sep 2026 at 3:27amTue 15 Sep 2026 at 3:27amTue 15 Sep 2026 at 3:27am
Donald Trump has aggressively pushed back on calls to regulate AI development in the US, claiming there is a “sick conspiracy” against the technology.
Pressure is building in Washington for urgent action to rein in AI’s rapid development after a flurry of dire warnings from industry leaders.
But the US president has used social media to say the only protection necessary is a “high IQ” president.
He suggested regulating AI would only help China get ahead of the US, and he criticised Dario Amodei, the CEO of AI giant Anthropic who published an essay about AI’s dangers over the weekend.
“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” he wrote.
“The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ — and we will continue to do so!
“We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China.”
In a second post an hour later, Mr Trump said: “The only reason the AI/Data Center outburst is happening is because the United States is leading, by a lot, every other country. Don’t kill the Golden Goose!”
On Saturday, Mr Amodei published an essay outlining a three-step plan to safely “pace” AI development while systems are developed to manage its risk. It was quickly endorsed by his rivals, xAI’s Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
It followed AI researcher Jacob Coxon’s decision last week to quit his job with Anthropic and issue a sensational public warning that AI could lead to human extinction.
Mr Trump did not elaborate on his “conspiracy” claim or specify what “bad things” his administration had prevented Mr Amodei from doing.
But the US Government and Anthropic clashed earlier this year after the company asked for guarantees that the defence department would not use Anthropic’s AI for fully autonomous weapons or for mass domestic surveillance.
Mr Trump subsequently said he was ordering federal agencies to stop working with Anthropic, and the Pentagon declared it a supply-chain risk.
AI is emerging as a major election issue ahead of the US’s midterms in November, when voters will determine which party controls Congress for the second half of Mr Trump’s presidency.
Polls show growing concerns over the construction of data centres in American communities as well as a range of risks posed by the technology.