Trump moves to ban Anthropic from the US government

President Donald Trump has instructed every federal agency to 'immediately cease' use of Anthropic's AI tools, citing a clash over military applications. The order mandates a six-month phase-out period, following weeks of conflict where the Pentagon sought to eliminate contractual restrictions on AI deployment to allow 'all lawful use.' Anthropic, which has a $200 million deal with the Pentagon and provides custom Claude Gov models for classified systems, objected that such changes could permit fully autonomous lethal weapons or mass surveillance. The public dispute escalated after reports that Claude assisted in planning a military operation to capture Venezuela's president.

The ban directly impacts Anthropic's position as the first major AI lab to work with the US military through classified systems via Palantir and Amazon's cloud. While Claude Gov is used for routine tasks like report writing, it also supports intelligence analysis and military planning. The conflict represents a critical test for Silicon Valley's increasing involvement in defense contracting. In response, hundreds of workers from OpenAI and Google signed an open letter supporting Anthropic's ethical stance, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calling autonomous weapons a 'red line.' The outcome will set a precedent for how much control AI companies retain over military use of their technology.