President Donald Trump said in his 60 Minutes interview with Ross Douthat that the Justice Department had told the leader of "one of the big" AI companies to get ready for jail after the person was "reported to us to be doing something bad with AI." That is Trump's account; he would not name the person or the company. He gave the story as his example of how AI risk "can be managed." No agency, company or person has confirmed who it was, or that such a call took place.
CBS News says it met Trump at the White House on Friday for his first sit-down interview since the midterms. The episode is dated November 8, 2026, in the CBS broadcast transcript.
What did Trump say about the AI executive?
The exchange is in the full interview transcript that CBS News published. Douthat asked whether Trump thinks the risk from AI is not real. Trump answered:
"I think that the risk is not nearly as real as it... as they talk. And I think the risk can be managed. And it's managed, you know who? By who? The DOJ. We had a situation where somebody was reported to us to be doing something bad with AI. We called them very strongly and said, "Get ready to go to jail. Please give your wife a kiss good night.""
Douthat asked, "Who was this person?" Trump replied, "I can't tell you." He went on to say, "this person totally changed everything. Totally. "Yes, sir. Yes, sir..."" Douthat then asked, "Was it a leader of a major AI company?" Trump said, "One of the big ones. Yeah."
Trump also said he did not think it was done maliciously, then added, "But it coulda been malicious." The transcript does not say what the person was reported for, which agency official made the call, or when it happened.
Who was the executive?
Trump did not say. The Verge reports that "Trump refused to name the person or company he was referring to, but said it was the leader of an AI company, "One of the big ones.""
Business Insider reports: "Representatives for the Trump White House and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider."
Gizmodo writes that Trump has made similar claims before and has "specifically singled out Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei." Gizmodo reports that in a Truth Social post on September 14, Trump claimed his administration had stopped "AI 'people' from doing bad, or potentially bad, 'things,'" and named Amodei in the same sentence. Gizmodo adds: "It's unclear whether Trump was referring to the same incident he described on 60 Minutes." Nothing in the 60 Minutes interview names Amodei, and that September post is not proof he is the executive Trump described.
No charges, case or investigation were named in the interview.
How does this fit Trump's view of AI risk?
The story came in the middle of a longer exchange on AI safety. Douthat had said people in the AI industry "do things like stand outside their company and say, "Hey, we're creating this amazing company, and there's a 10% chance it kills..." "humanity.""
Asked why he is not worried about the doom fears of the people building AI, Trump said: "Because w... first of all, because China's gonna have it, okay? So if we don't have it, China's gonna have it. That would put us at an unbelievable disadvantage."
Right after the jail story, Douthat asked whether Trump would work with Democrats on AI safety. Trump said, "I would absolutely..." and then: "I don't mind guardrails. But I don't wanna put us in a deep second position. We're leading number one. And China has no guardrails, by the way."
He added: "By the way, you know, we have very brilliant people watching every one of these companies. Brilliant people."
Business Insider also reports a September White House gathering with Google's Sundar Pichai, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI's Greg Brockman, xAI's Elon Musk, and Nvidia's Jensen Huang. In Business Insider's words: "They signed a voluntary safety accord calling for internal controls, outside evaluations, and board oversight. Trump described it as "morally binding.""
For more on how the White House and federal AI staff work together, see our post on CAISSI staff informally reporting to the White House. For the market side of last week's election, see how the midterms hit AI stocks.
What we don't know
- The name of the executive.
- The company.
- What the person was reported for.
- Whether any formal investigation or legal case exists.
CBS News posted two transcripts. In its transcript of the broadcast version, Trump's answer goes from "And I think the risk can be managed." straight to the question about working with Democrats. The jail exchange is in the full interview transcript.
Sources
- CBS News: 60 Minutes Transcript: Donald Trump, the 2026 post-midterm elections interview
- CBS News: Read the full transcript of Ross Douthat's interview with President Trump
- Business Insider: Trump tells '60 Minutes' his administration once threatened a big AI company leader with jail time
- The Verge: Trump's 60 Minutes interview touched on AI safety, threat to arrest an AI exec
- Gizmodo: Trump Says He Told an AI Executive to Kiss His Family Goodbye Before Going to Jail
