Trump Orders All Federal Agencies To Cease Using Anthropic

President Donald Trump directed all federal agencies to immediately stop using Anthropic on Friday, announcing the move on his Truth Social website roughly one hour before the Pentagon’s deadline for the artificial intelligence startup to lift restrictions on the military’s use of its Claude AI model.

Trump wrote that the U.S. “WILL NEVER ALLOW A RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY TO DICTATE HOW OUR GREAT MILITARY FIGHTS AND WINS WARS,” and said the “Leftwing nut jobs” at Anthropic “made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of [Defense].”

The president claimed that the company’s red lines on the use of its technology to surveil U.S. citizens or empower autonomous weapons put American lives at risk, U.S. troops in danger and the country’s national security in jeopardy.

Trump said there will be a six-month phase-out period for the Pentagon and other agencies using Anthropic’s products. If the company resists, the president threatened to use “the Full Power of the Presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences to follow.”

The president’s directive follows an ultimatum given to the AI company earlier this week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that Anthropic must abandon red lines over the use of its model or face harsh penalties. Those included labeling the company a supply chain risk and invoking the Defense Production Act to compel the use of Anthropic’s model.

Amodei rejected the Pentagon’s demands late on Thursday, but left the door open for further negotiations with the government. A spokesperson for Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Friday, four senators in charge of defense policy sent a letter to Hegseth and Amodei urging the two sides to calm tensions and extend negotiations beyond the Pentagon’s “hasty” deadline.

“Simply put, there is no reason to transform this situation into an all-or-nothing moment,” the senators wrote, warning of a negative impact on national security and the willingness of the tech industry to contract with Washington.