President Trump fired off an angry missive today in a Truth Social post, which was then reposted by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on X.com.
The President directed every US government agency to immediately cease using any AI tech from Anthropic (the makers of Claude). The moment comes after a week-long standoff between Trump’s administration and Anthropic, in which the former wanted the latter to allow its technology to enable two things: mass domestic surveillance of Americans and the use of fully autonomous military weapons without human involvement.
Anthropic’s two red lines
The Pentagon disagrees
According to CBS News, the Pentagon wanted full access to Claude’s abilities without restrictions for all lawful purposes. Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei rejected the offer the day before Friday’s 5pm federal deadline in a long post on Anthropic’s site, saying, “we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values.” and calling out two specific “red lines” it wanted to protect from having its technology used for: mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
The CEO also pointed out that surveillance using AI systems is “a practice the Intelligence Community has acknowledged raises privacy concerns, and that has generated bipartisan opposition in Congress.”
President Trump’s response, then, said, “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. Their selfishness is putting AMERICAN LIVES at risk, our Troops in danger, and our National Security in JEOPARDY.”
The President continued, essentially firing Anthropic from the federal government. “Therefore, I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology,” he said in the post. “We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!”
President Trump noted a six-month phase-out plan for agencies like the Department of War, and then warned, “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.”
Complicating the ban, the data analytics firm Palantir relies on Claude in its sensitive classified work with the military, which could create even more ripple effects, as noted by Axios.
OpenAI’s CEO told CNBC in an interview before the President’s TruthSocial post that he also shares Anthropic’s views on surveillance and autonomous weapons, as reported by NPR.
This story is developing.
