Anthropic Refuses to Grant Pentagon AI Access; Trump Furious

US President Donald Trump has ordered all federal agencies to immediately cease using artificial intelligence (AI) technology from Anthropic. Anthropic is an American AI company known as a competitor to OpenAI and has developed several popular AI models, including Claude.

Trump announced the decision through a post on Truth Social. Via his @realDonaldTrump account, he described Anthropic as a “left-wing AI company” and assessed that the company does not align with US military requirements in conflict situations.

Trump also ordered the withdrawal of Anthropic technology from all government operations and agencies within six months, including use in the US Department of Defence (Pentagon). “We do not need it (Anthropic), we do not want it, and will not work with them again,” Trump wrote.

He added that should the company fail to comply with this policy, the government would use its authority to enforce it, including the possibility of civil and criminal consequences.

The Pentagon reportedly requested full unrestricted access to Anthropic’s AI models for various military needs. The request included uses of AI that Anthropic considers high-risk, such as mass domestic surveillance and development of fully autonomous weapons without human control.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth subsequently stated that Anthropic would be designated as a “supply-chain risk”, a status that can restrict the company’s contracts with the Pentagon and other defence partners.

“No contractor, supplier, or partner conducting business with the US military shall engage in commercial activities with Anthropic. The company shall continue to provide services to the Pentagon for no more than six months during the transition period,” Hegseth explained in a post on X (formerly Twitter) via the @SecWar account.

“American soldiers will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech companies. This decision is final,” he added.