Trump orders US agencies to drop Anthropic after Pentagon feud

Josh Wingrove, Bloomberg News on Feb 27, 2026

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President Donald Trump directed U.S. government agencies to stop using Anthropic PBC’s products, capping a feud between the artificial intelligence giant and the Pentagon over safeguards on its technology.

Trump said Friday that there would be a six-month “phase out period” for agencies including the Defense Department that are using Anthropic’s products.

“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,” the president posted on social media. “Therefore, I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology.”

Spokespeople for Anthropic didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hegseth had given Anthropic until 5 p.m. on Friday to allow the Pentagon to use the Claude chatbot for any means necessary, within legal limits. The company had insisted that Claude not be used for mass surveillance against Americans or in fully autonomous weapons operations.

Trump’s decision will send a shockwave through Silicon Valley, where tech firms have invested billions of dollars on artificial intelligence and are weighing how best to handle federal government contracting. The move takes aim at a company that’s leading development of AI, a centerpiece of Trump’s economic agenda.

The stakes are huge for Anthropic, which is valued at $380 billion and has agreed to do about $200 million in work with the military. It’s also a risk for the government given that Anthropic was until recently the only AI system that could operate in the Pentagon’s classified cloud. Its Claude Gov tool is a favored option among defense personnel for its ease of use.

The move will almost certainly provoke blowback from Silicon Valley. Workers at several major tech companies incuding Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. had called for their employers to reject Pentagon demands for unrestricted use of AI products. Earlier Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman had also pushed back, telling employees the company was talking to the Pentagon about using its models with similar limits.

“We would like to try to help de-escalate things,” he wrote in a memo, according to the Journal.

On Thurday, Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei had made clear the company was standing its ground. That provoked an evening social-media tirade from Emil Michael, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, who wrote that Amodei “is a liar and has a God-complex.”

“He wants nothing more than to try to personally control the US Military and is ok putting our nation’s safety at risk,” Michael wrote.

Michael had struck a more conciliatory tone on Friday morning, telling Bloomberg TV the department was willing to continue its discussions with Anthropic.

“So long as they’re in good faith, we’re always open to talks,” Michael said. “Up until that deadline, I’m open to more talks and I told them so.”

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