Trump Administration Uses Export Controls to Block Anthropic AI

Trump Targets Anthropic with Novel Export Control Strategy

The Trump administration has taken the unprecedented step of using export control regulations to block foreign nationals from accessing Anthropic's most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5. The Commerce Department directive, which forced Anthropic to disable access on Friday, marks the first time the government has attempted to restrict foreign persons from simply logging in and using an American AI system.

The move relies on authorities granted under the Export Control Reform Act of 2018, which established licensing requirements for transferring sensitive technologies to foreign parties. However, former government officials question whether the law actually permits regulating access to AI models themselves, as opposed to the underlying technology.

Legal Authority in Question

"This is the first time I think I'm aware of — and I was at [the Commerce Department bureau overseeing export controls] for 25 plus years — where we tried to restrict access to a thing that was unrelated to access to the underlying technology," said Matthew Borman, a former deputy assistant secretary of Commerce who served in both Trump administrations.

The Commerce Department has applied these restrictions only to Anthropic and has not formalized the rule through Federal Register publication. Kevin Wolf, a former senior Commerce official from the Obama administration, expressed similar skepticism about the legal foundation: "I don't know what the legal authority is for that."

Borman noted that the department's own guidance appears to contradict this action. Previous Bureau of Industry and Security guidance concluded that allowing foreign nationals to access cloud computing capability does not itself constitute an export.

Industry-Wide Implications

Anthropically characterized the designation as a "misunderstanding" and has not indicated plans to challenge it legally. Senior staff met with Commerce officials and the National Cyber Director's office on Monday, but the meeting ended without resolution.

The action serves as a clear signal to other AI companies. Trump's recent executive order requests that AI developers voluntarily submit their models to the government 30 days before release. The Anthropic case demonstrates the potential consequences of non-compliance.

"If they don't, they could potentially run the risk that they go ahead and roll something out, and the government sends them a cease-and-desist directive," Borman warned.

An OpenAI official, speaking anonymously at the G7 Summit in France, emphasized the importance of complying with government protocols and acknowledged that "these frameworks are going to continue to need to evolve and grow" as models become more capable.

Why it matters

This unprecedented use of export controls could fundamentally reshape how American AI companies operate globally. If the Commerce Department extends this approach to other frontier models from OpenAI, Google, and others, it would give the federal government sweeping power to determine who can access leading AI systems worldwide — including foreign nationals working inside the United States. The lack of formal rulemaking and questionable legal foundation raises concerns about arbitrary enforcement and competitive disadvantages for U.S. companies in the global AI market.

These details were first reported by POLITICO.