Axios C-Suite: What Jim learned for the week of April 4
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
I'm going to share intel picked up from top officials in government, AI and business. It was shared confidentially, but with the knowledge I'd use it without sourcing it.
🚨 High alert: I've learned that Anthropic is very close to unveiling the breakthrough AI update, which I told you about last weekend. The new Claude model, Mythos, has stunning power to detect and exploit holes in the cybersecurity of businesses and nations.
- Here's a new twist: After private briefings by Anthropic, some in the Trump administration are rethinking its blacklisting of Anthropic.
- "The new model is so powerful that the government has to think seriously about the implications," said a source briefed on Claude's coming capabilities. "The new model's ability to identify vulnerabilities in cybersecurity is unlike anything we've ever seen. The government has to recognize what it could expose [in other nations], as well as weaknesses here that could be exploited by others."
- Every person who's been briefed seems freaked out by the capabilities.
⚕️ Wiles' health scare: I can't recall a staffer's health mattering more to governance than Susie Wiles' cancer scare. The 68-year-old White House chief of staff is currently undergoing breast cancer treatment.
- She's the most important conduit for CEOs to President Trump (outside his cell) and a rare check on Stephen Miller's power. Miller is Cheney-like in knowing how to pull the levers of government to impose his hardline views. Wiles is the neutralizer.
- This is a bad time for her to miss any time or beat. Trump reacts poorly to forces beyond his control — in this case, the second-order economic effects of the war he started and the political environment that has grown worse for his party.
- Hard to imagine Pam Bondi's firing being so sloppy if Susie were fully engaged.
- What to watch: With GOP fears of losing the Senate rising, Trump has a short window for easier confirmation for new cabinet officials. So brace for more ousters — and more volatility.
🗳️ Newsom's Hillary + Mitt problem: Based on polls and betting markets, California Gov. Gavin Newsom seems like Dems' 2028 front-runner. But dig deeper — then think superficially — and you see a big problem.
- MS NOW's Chris Hayes, in a must-listen podcast with the NYT's Ross Douthat, turned me onto Newsom's Hillary problem: He's so well-known as a liberal Californian that he'll have a hard time convincing voters he's not a lefty. Behind the scenes, top Dems are passing around polling showing Newsom more unpopular than other '28 hopefuls.
- Then consider his Mitt Romney problem: He looks so central-casting handsome, so hair-perfect slick, that normal voters just assume he's full of it when he shifts or evolves positions.
- Watch our interview with him on "The Axios Show" through this new lens.
🇮🇷 Iran's red line: The smartest strategic insight I've heard this week on the war: Iran's present and future depends on the Strait of Hormuz, not nuclear weapons. It's their only remaining source of wealth, influence and power, regionally and globally.
- Axios Middle East expert Barak Ravid, the world's best-sourced reporter on the topic, told me: "During the war, Iran really discovered how it can hold the world by the balls with the Strait of Hormuz. ... Even if the Iranians reopen it at the end of the war, they know they have deterrence for the future."
📈 If you're a CEO or on a CEO's team: Sign up now to join Jim's new Axios C-Suite weekly newsletter.
