Washington answered the weekend AI slowdown ask with a Truth Social thread

President Donald Trump lashed out Monday at calls for new AI guardrails, arguing the only control AI needs is a “STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT,” Herb Scribner at Axios reports. In the same stretch of Truth Social posts he swiped at Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as someone “who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel.’”

Guardrails are rules meant to keep AI from causing big harm. Truth Social is Trump’s own social network where he posts official-style statements. Axios called it a second condemnation in a 12-hour span.

Early Monday he wrote: “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!” Later posts called fears of “AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad” a “HOAX,” and said development “will not be stopped by brilliantly run Destructive Forces.”

He also wrote: “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so.” He claimed the administration “has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’” without elaborating. Another line: “We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies!”

He floated “a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China.”

The Amodei line lands on the same weekend Amodei’s essay asked labs to pace how fast the smartest models improve, with Altman and Musk publicly nodding at the pace ask. Axios notes the Trump administration had previously clashed with Anthropic over Pentagon supply-chain risk and Mythos access, Anthropic’s most capable model tier. Former White House AI czar David Sacks, the administration's AI policy lead, has said labs can slow without demanding a preferred regulatory framework.

MS NOW’s Jake Traylor, Jacqueline Alemany, and Lindsey Pipia report Trump met privately with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backstage at the Republican midterm convention on Thursday, per three people familiar with the meeting. Altman requested the meeting, one source said.

The brief overview centered on AI and its growing power. Days later Altman posted that slowing “will be well worth this cost” and said OpenAI will delay going public this year citing safety.

MS NOW also notes Trump revoked a Biden AI directive in January 2025, issued a December executive order for a federal framework preempting states, and a June order for voluntary about 30-day pre-release access. That framework was completed by Aug. 1, with companies convened the next day.

Anthropic attended, per a person familiar. No public readout followed.

Frontier labs spent the weekend asking for pace and outside desks. The presidential reply landed Monday.

The White House answer arrived as all-caps posts naming a High-IQ president as the control layer and Amodei as the angel act.

Same news day Asia sold the AI trade. Washington filed a thread.