Anthropic is building an in-house political team to advise 2028 presidential candidates from both parties on AI policy; meanwhile, the company is still fighting the Trump administration in court.
Learning from its tumultuous relationship with the Trump administration, Anthropic has decided to start building a relationship with the next presidential candidates, a move that critics see as an attempt to influence politics.
Will Anthropic be advising the Trump administration?
Anthropic recently posted a listing for a Political Programs Lead, based in Washington and paying $295,000 to $345,000 a year on its job board. The listing says that the hire will “build and run Anthropic’s presidential engagement program for the 2028 cycle,” mapping the likely candidate fields in both parties and briefing campaigns and their advisers on AI policy.
Katie Harbath, who spent a decade as Facebook’s public policy director and now runs the advisory firm Anchor Change, said the move should be considered as the company’s attempt to develop “relationships with whomever will be in the White House in 2029.”
She did not find the role unusual in itself, likening it to her old job, though she said folding the company’s political action committee money into the same portfolio is less common.
Anthropic’s motive for building a relationship could be linked to its combative dealings with the Trump White House.
In March, the Defense Department labeled the company a “supply chain risk” and ordered federal agencies to stop using its Claude models, after Anthropic refused to let the Pentagon use its technology for fully autonomous weapons or mass surveillance of Americans.
The company sued, filing two complaints against the department. In the California case, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled in August that the designation was unlawful retaliation in violation of the First Amendment and “arbitrary and capricious.”
However, on September 25, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the designation in a 2-1 decision.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted “Confirmed: @AnthropicAI = Supply Chain Risk” on X.
CEO Dario Amodei has pushed for slower AI development and government rules, a stance President Trump rejects. On September 29, Amodei joined other AI chiefs at the White House and signed a voluntary self-policing accord.
How is Anthropic funding its political program?
Anthropic registered its employee-funded PAC, AnthroPAC, with the Federal Election Commission in April, with employees able to contribute up to $5,000 a year, which is the legal cap.
FEC filings show the PAC raised $372,308 between its April registration and the end of August, spent $156,749, and held about $215,559 in cash.
Anthropic has spent far more outside the PAC. It gave $20 million to Public First Action, a bipartisan group tied to two super PACs backing candidates who support AI safeguards. Amodei personally donated $1 million to a related pro-regulation super PAC, Public First, in July.
Some observers like Bruce Freed of the nonpartisan Center for Political Accountability see the program as an attempt at lobbying, calling it “an AI company effort aimed at shaping or staving off government regulation or oversight.”
Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, urged the company to disclose more, warning that “education and influence are not the same thing, and the public deserves to know where one ends and the other begins.”
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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