President Donald Trump stepped off Marine One at the White House on Sunday evening, arriving on the South Lawn's new granite helipad ahead of a private dinner with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. It is the first one-on-one meeting between the two men, and it lands at a delicate moment: Anthropic's relationship with the administration has been strained for much of the past year, partly over the company's refusal to give the Pentagon unrestricted access to its models. Amodei was also the only major AI leader missing from Thursday's state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping, though Axios reports Trump personally invited him to Sunday's dinner afterward. Trump has said he plans to press his "let's go and let's win" message on AI, arguing the US is roughly a year to a year and a half ahead of China.

The new landing pad, which Trump proudly showed off to Xi on Thursday, is drawing attention of its own. A post circulating online claims it ends the old problem of rainy nights forcing the president to travel by motorcade, with road closures affecting thousands and Marine One risking sinking into soggy ground, though those specific claims have not been independently confirmed. On the substance of the dinner, the two sides sit far apart, with Amodei recently writing that the pace of AI progress needs to slow, while Trump has dismissed worries about AI risks. A broader meeting between Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and top AI CEOs is planned for Tuesday, and Sunday's dinner is widely seen as a possible first step toward easing tensions ahead of Anthropic's expected IPO.