Katy Perry Picks a Side in Trump’s AI Food Fight...

Hey there Folks,

In this evening’s edition, Anthropic learns the Streisand Effect pays better than Super Bowl ads, Katy Perry picks a side in the AI Cold War, and travel stocks relive their least favorite year.

Let’s get started…

-“You really thought even the President of the US could defeat me…” (1 trillion Claude bots proceed to laugh in evil villain)

In a story that feels ripped straight out of a 2012 Tumblr rebellion, Anthropic’s Claude just snagged the No. 1 spot on Apple’s top free U.S. apps list… immediately after the U.S. government tried to clip its wings. Who needs paid acquisition when you can cause a federal freakout.

On Saturday, Claude leapfrogged to No. 1, leaving OpenAI’s ChatGPT at No. 2 and Google’s Gemini chilling at No. 4.

Why? Because the Pentagon basically said, “This app is a supply-chain risk.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly pushed to label Anthropic a national security concern… effectively blocking defense contractors from using it.

Translation: no late-night vibe-coding for Uncle Sam.

What was the spark, you ask? Anthropic refused to let its models be used for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. Bold stance. Controversial. Apparently… elite marketing.

Then things escalated. Donald Trump hit Truth Social accusing Anthropic of trying to “STRONG-ARM the Department of War.” And in this economy, nothing sells to AI bros faster than a caps-lock Oval Office rant.

For context, back on January 30, Claude ranked No. 131. By late February, top 20. This weekend? King of The Hill (a different kind of March Madness).

Anthropic says free users are up 60% since January. Daily sign-ups have tripled since November. Paying subs? More than doubled this year. You block it from the Pentagon… and the public treats it like hour one of the GTA 6 drop.

Meanwhile, as America debated who deserved to get voted off Survivor 50, Sam Altman was making sure it wasn’t him. He rolled out news that OpenAI had struck a deal with the Defense Department… just after Claude got ghosted by Donnie and Co.

Naturally, Katy Perry parachuted into the chaos with a heart-stamped screenshot of her Claude Pro subscription. The Department of Defense on one side. “Teenage Dream” on the other.

Zoom out and this is way bigger than app rankings (Silicon Valley’s version of comparing sizes).

Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, has been eating Sam Altman’s vegan lunch in coding and enterprise AI. Sure, ChatGPT still has over 900 million weekly users… but for the best case uses of AI (coding, developing, etc.), Claude is destroying the competition.

Call it the Streisand Effect. Call it AI tribalism. Call it the most American growth hack ever.

Either way, Claude learned something powerful: If the Pentagon slams the door… the App Store might just kick it wide open.

-And just like that, 3,748 ecom and trading “gurus” from America cancelled their spring break trip to the world’s safest city (read: Dubai).

If you thought booking a middle seat next to a screaming 2 year old enroute to Orlando was painful, try being an airline CFO this morning.

Sidenote: if you’ve got a vacation planned overseas anytime in the next month… it might be time to price out that refund and reacquaint yourself with your office chair.

Because after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran over the weekend, large chunks of the Middle East basically turned into aviation’s version of “we’ll circle back.”

Airspace closures spread like wildfire… routes have vanished… and about 3,400 flights were canceled across seven major airports.

Translation: whoever loaded up on put options against travel stocks Friday afternoon is currently shopping for a second boat.

And we’re not talking about “a few delays.” Nearly 98% of arrivals into Dubai International were canceled. Doha turned into a ghost town too, with roughly 79% of flights wiped out. Dubai then chopped another 1,100 flights just to really drive the point home.

Airlines got smoked accordingly. United dropped 7% (hard to monetize a Tel Aviv route when the airspace is closed). Delta and American fell 7% as well. Even Southwest, more U.S.-focused, slipped 2% (go ahead and blame the whole Strait of Hormuz oil situation for that).

Speaking of the liquid gold… because of this whole Iran war situation… oil might explode in price. And considering fuel is airlines’ biggest expense after labor, that could be another kick to the margin groin.

Hotels caught strays as well. Marriott and Hilton dipped as investors processed the idea that the “international travel rebound” might need a quick timeout. Cruise lines couldn’t escape the carnage either. Carnival fell more than 8%... while Norwegian and Royal Caribbean dumped 7-8%. When cruise vacationers stay home, you know it’s bad.

To be clear, markets have seen this movie before. During prior flare-ups, including the 2025 strikes ordered by President Trump during the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict, the initial panic didn’t always spiral into a prolonged shutdown. Both sides eventually signaled restraint.

But here’s what investors are worried about… if this escalates (and it looks like it will), oil climbs. Well naturally, if oil climbs, airline costs rise. And then if costs rise, ticket prices jump. If ticket prices jump, demand jumps into the sewer. And that domino chain moves fast.

Maybe this is all an overreaction and the sky reopens soon. But if not, we’re staring in the face of another airline selloff to the likes of which we haven’t seen since the pandemic in 2020.

The Team at Bullseye Trades