Trump orders federal agencies to immediately stop using Anthropic AI

President Trump directed every federal agency to "immediately cease" all use of Anthropic's technology after the AI company refused Pentagon demands to allow its Claude AI for autonomous weapons systems and mass domestic surveillance of Americans. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic a "Supply-Chain Risk to National Security" -- a label typically applied to foreign adversary-linked firms such as Huawei -- and set a 5:01 PM ET Friday deadline for compliance. Anthropic refused. CEO Dario Amodei stated: "These threats do not change our position: We cannot in good conscience accede to their request."

The designation is unprecedented for a US-based AI company. The Pentagon receives a six-month phase-out window; all other federal agencies must stop using Anthropic technology immediately. Until now, government AI contracts had been contested on price, capability, and data security grounds -- not on a company's refusal to enable lethal autonomous systems or domestic surveillance. OpenAI announced a separate Pentagon deal the same day, though CEO Sam Altman confirmed OpenAI holds the same prohibitions on autonomous weapons and mass surveillance, suggesting the underlying tension between AI safety principles and military demands extends beyond Anthropic alone.