Trump adviser's memo puts Amodei at the root of EA

A memo by a Trump political adviser says effective altruism puts "shrimp over families" and "possible machine minds over Americans," and it names Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as one of the people who built the movement, Axios reports after obtaining the document. The memo began circulating inside the White House this week, as Anthropic prepares for what is expected to be a record-setting IPO.

At a glance

• Trump allies are casting Amodei as the face of AI "doomerism," and sources told Axios that surrogates see him as an easy foil because of his politics and his focus on AI safety.
• The memo says effective altruism "built the AI-doom pipeline," names Dario and Daniela Amodei among those who "built the [EA] network," and files their ties under the heading "The Anthropic knot."
• The memo lists abortion, veganism and rights for "digital minds" but does not tie them to Amodei directly, and people at Anthropic have repeatedly said they do not identify with the movement.

If you have not followed the movement: according to Wikipedia, effective altruism means "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible." Business Insider traces it to Peter Singer's 1972 essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" and describes a later "longtermism" faction that steered money and talent toward catastrophic risks, including losing control of highly capable AI.

A White House memo names Dario and Daniela Amodei as builders of the EA network

The memo was penned by a Trump political adviser and drafted with Trump in mind, Axios reports. It paints effective altruism as a fringe, cultish collective out of touch with mainstream America. It says the movement prioritizes "foreigners over citizens, shrimp over families, future hypothetical people over the living" and, "on the current agenda," "possible machine minds over Americans."

Dario Amodei appears as one of the people who "built the [EA] network," alongside his sister Daniela Amodei, Anthropic's president, whose husband once led a philanthropy dedicated to AI safety. The document calls those ties "The Anthropic knot." One source close to the administration told Axios that Amodei "is the embodiment of an ideology and globalist approach to innovation that's counter to the president's America First agenda."

The memo lists abortion, veganism and "digital minds" without linking them to Amodei

Axios describes the memo's list as a parade of horribles for the average conservative mind: abortion, veganism, and devaluing human life by overvaluing animals or by granting "digital minds" protections resembling civil rights. It does not directly tie any of these to Amodei. It also makes sure to mention Sam Bankman-Fried, without linking him to those issues either.

If you missed that chapter, Bankman-Fried founded the crypto exchange FTX and was a major funder of effective altruism causes before late 2022. After FTX went bankrupt, he was convicted of orchestrating multiple frauds and is now serving a 25-year prison sentence.

The criticism is not only coming from MAGA. Silicon Valley players and Democrats also attack the movement, and one Democratic donor and tech entrepreneur invested in an AI company told Axios: "What they believe is crazy. And it's dangerous. What they say about AI safety is also bullshit."

Daniela Amodei told Wired in 2025 that she does not identify with the EA label

Anthropic has been working to distance itself from the movement. "I don't identify with that terminology," Daniela Amodei told Wired in 2025. Amanda Askell, an early employee and philosopher by training who helps develop Claude's constitution, says it is "not a theme of the organization." Dario Amodei has insisted in press interviews that he is not a member, and he has touted the benefits of AI.

The relationship with the White House has been rocky anyway. In the view of the Florida-heavy White House and its allies, Anthropic is staffed with too many Biden-era liberals, Democrats and strange Californians. Months ago, when some on Anthropic's team asked about Amodei meeting the president, officials advised against it because "Dario's a little too weird" for Trump, one senior official told Axios.

Altman, Hassabis and Musk also urged slowing AI, but Amodei is Trump world's chief safety voice

AI safety concerns have become a bipartisan issue. OpenAI's Sam Altman, Google DeepMind chair Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk have also called for slowing AI development after a spate of episodes in which AI agents hacked outside companies. Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Microsoft's Satya Nadella, meanwhile, are trying to build a more positive message amid a growing populist backlash.

Still, Amodei is considered the chief AI safety spokesperson in Trump world, following major fallouts with the administration this year. According to Business Insider, Trump has dismissed fears that advanced AI could threaten humanity as a "hoax," the Defense Department posted "Americanism, not effective altruism" on X, and adviser David Sacks accused EA-linked groups of forming a "Doomer Industrial Complex."

American Greatness, in a Sept. 16, 2026 article, had already mapped the advisers Amodei thanks in his essays, naming EA-linked figures such as Allan Dafoe, Nick Beckstead and Jason Matheny, now president of the RAND Corporation, and calling the group "remarkably homogeneous."

Effective altruism picks causes by measured impact, and AI safety is only one of them

The mechanism is easier to see than the memo suggests. Per Wikipedia, popular priorities include global health, inequality, animal welfare and long-term risks to humanity. Business Insider says the movement urges graduates toward high-impact careers or "earning to give," taking lucrative jobs to donate the proceeds. Think of it as picking charities the way an investor picks funds, by expected return per dollar.

Large donors then carry the chosen causes. Business Insider names Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, funding through Coefficient Giving, formerly Open Philanthropy. The shrimp line has a lineage too: Peter Singer, closely affiliated with EA's tenets, is one of the most prominent animal rights advocates, which is how animal welfare ended up next to AI safety.

The memo leaves a lot out. Axios does not name the adviser who wrote it, and nothing in the reporting says whether Trump has read it or whether it will shape any action toward Anthropic. The argument appears to rest on proximity: charged topics sit near Amodei's name without being tied to him, while the company rejects the label.

OpenAI's catch-up and the IPO

Axios notes that some in the administration had set aside their gripes with Anthropic, mainly because it leads the AI frontier and because of personnel changes. If OpenAI catches up technologically, Trump allies may find it easier to go after the company again, with the midterm elections under way. No date for the expected IPO has been given, and it is not known whether the memo will spread beyond the White House.