President Trump directed every federal agency to immediately cease using Anthropic’s technology on Friday, asserting that the United States would never allow a radical left, woke company to dictate how its military fights and wins wars.
In his statement, Trump emphasized that such decisions belong exclusively to the Commander-in-Chief and the leaders he appoints. He accused Leftwing “nut jobs” at Anthropic of making a disastrous mistake by attempting to strong-arm the Department of War into obeying their Terms of Service instead of the Constitution.
The president declared that Anthropic’s actions were putting American lives at risk, troops in danger, and national security in jeopardy. As part of his directive, Trump ordered all federal agencies to immediately stop using Anthropic’s technology with a six-month phase-out period for agencies like the Department of War.
Anthropic has maintained that despite threats from the Pentagon, they refuse to drop two key demands: no use of their artificial intelligence for fully autonomous weapons—meaning AI, not humans, making final battlefield targeting decisions—and no mass domestic surveillance. The company stated that the latest contract language from the Pentagon does not fully commit to avoiding these uses and allows their safeguards to be “disregarded at will.” Anthropic noted that the new contract language made little progress on preventing Claude’s use for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons.
Top members of the Senate Armed Services Committee sent a private letter urging Anthropic and the Pentagon to resolve their dispute. In the letter, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth condemned Anthropic’s stance as “duplicity” and stated that the Department of War must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for all lawful purposes.
Hegseth added: “Anthropic’s stance is fundamentally incompatible with American principles. Their relationship with the United States Armed Forces and the Federal Government has therefore been permanently altered. In conjunction with the President’s directive … I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security.”
HealthRanger Mike Adams, who praised Anthropic for rejecting Pentagon demands, stated: “Anthropic just demonstrated real integrity and adherence to principles by REJECTING the Pentagon’s demands to allow its AI technology to be used for mass surveillance and autonomous killbots. Trump and the White House are now coming off as angry teenagers.”
Adams also noted that the Pentagon has a history of acquiring technology it later twists and abuses in violation of U.S. law, citing the COVID weaponization incident: “When has the Pentagon ever acquired technology that it DIDN’T twist and abuse in violation of U.S. law? Those defending the Pentagon vs. Anthropic are clueless about reality. Where do you think COVID weaponization came from? It was a DoD project laundered through Wuhan, of course, and then placed into the jabs. All 100% illegal.”
The decision is particularly significant because Claude, Anthropic’s AI model, is currently the only one used in the military’s classified systems and was involved in operations such as capturing Nicolás Maduro.