Further aggravating the standoff between Anthropic, an AI startup and U.S. Department of War over use of their AI system in classified network, U.S. President Donald Trump has directed all Federal Agencies of the government to stop using Anthropic’s technology.
Meanwhile, Pentagon branded Anthropic as a “supply-chain risk” over their refusal to allow the use of its Claude AI model for classified military network and instead, finalized the deal with OpenAI.
Taking to Truth Social, President Trump accused Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei of running the AI start-up as a “radical, left woke company” and called him a “leftwing nutjob.”
“The leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a disastrous mistake trying to strong arm the department of war and force them to obey their terms of service instead of our constitution. Therefore I am directing every Federal Agency in the United States government to immediately cease all use of Anthropic’s technology. We don’t need it, we don’t want it and we will not do business again,” said Trump.
“THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL NEVER ALLOW A RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY TO DICTATE HOW OUR GREAT MILITARY FIGHTS AND WINS WARS! That decision belongs to YOUR COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, and the tremendous leaders I appoint to run our Military.
The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic… pic.twitter.com/aIEx92nnyx
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 27, 2026
The president’s statement came just hours before the Pentagon’s 5 PM Friday deadline for Anthropic to comply with the request of the Department of War regarding use of Claude in the military.
Anthropic has objected to the use of Claude for mass domestic surveillance and AI autonomous weapons.
Trump’s statement comes after a week-long negotiation between Anthropic and the Pentagon which resulted in a stalemate. The president also threatened Anthropic with “major civil and criminal consequences”.
“There will be a six month phase out period for agencies like the department of war who are using Anthropic’s products, at various levels. Anthropic better get their act together and be helpful during this phase out period, or I will use the full power of the presidency to make them comply with major civil and criminal consequences to follow,” added Trump.
Pentagon Labels Anthropic as a “Supply Chain Risk”. What Does it Mean?
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who was negotiating with Anthropic on behalf of the Pentagon, accused its CEO Dario Amodei of trying to “strong-arm the United States military into submission.”
Moments after President Trump’s statement, Hegseth announced designating Anthropic as a “supply-chain risk.”
“In conjunction with the President’s directive for the Federal Government to cease all use of Anthropic’s technology, I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security,” said Hegseth.
This week, Anthropic delivered a master class in arrogance and betrayal as well as a textbook case of how not to do business with the United States Government or the Pentagon.
Our position has never wavered and will never waver: the Department of War must have full, unrestricted…
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) February 27, 2026
Being labelled as a “supply-chain risk” allows the Pentagon to exclude certain vendors from defense contracts if they are deemed to pose security vulnerabilities.
Hegseth also accused Anthropic CEO Amodei of being a “liar” and having “God complex.”
“Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic,” added Hegseth.
The secretary also added that Anthropic will continue to provide its services to the U.S. military for the next six months as per their existing contract.
Anthropic Fires Back, Says It will Go to Court
Reacting to Hegseth’s comments, Anthropic released a statement reiterating their stance against use of AI in mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
“We do not believe that today’s frontier AI models are reliable enough to be used in fully autonomous weapons. Allowing current models to be used in this way would endanger America’s warfighters and civilians. Second, we believe that mass domestic surveillance of Americans constitutes a violation of fundamental rights,” said Anthropic in a statement.
The AI startup also added that they will go to court against the decision of Pentagon to label them as “supply-chain risk”.
“No amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. We will challenge any supply chain risk designation in court,” said Anthropic in a statement.
OpenAI Cuts Deal with U.S. Military as Anthropic Vetoed Out
Meanwhile, OpenAI struck a deal with the department of war over deploying its models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took to X to announce that the Pentagon has agreed to the company’s stance against domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
Tonight, we reached an agreement with the Department of War to deploy our models in their classified network.
In all of our interactions, the DoW displayed a deep respect for safety and a desire to partner to achieve the best possible outcome.
AI safety and wide distribution of…
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 28, 2026
Pentagon was in talks with Anthropic, OpenAI and Google for use to AI in their classified network, after already striking a deal with xAI of Elon Musk.
“AI safety and wide distribution of benefits are the core of our mission. Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems. The DoW agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement,” said Altman.
Acting in direct support of Trump’s directive, the General Services Administration on February 27 announced it was removing Anthropic from USAi.gov — the government’s central AI evaluation platform — and from its Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), the contracting vehicle through which federal agencies purchase technology.
