U.S. President Donald Trump has barred federal agencies from working with the AI company Anthropic. “We do not need them, we do not want them, and we will never do business with them again” Trump stated on Friday.
Agencies that currently use Anthropic products, including the Department of Defense, will retain access for a six‑month transition period before the ban takes full effect. Trump’s justification was that the United States would not allow a “radical left, woke” company to dictate how the U.S. military conducts and wins wars. He accused Anthropic’s “left‑radical spin” of making a fatal mistake by attempting to pressure the DoD to comply with Anthropic’s own terms rather than the Constitution, claiming that the company’s ego endangers American lives, the troops, and national security.
According to media reports, Anthropic formerly received $200 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. The agency was reportedly impressed that Anthropic’s Claude model outperformed other AI models and was considered the best for defense and intelligence tasks. However, while U.S. authorities sought full access to the technology, Anthropic refused and instead imposed conditions restricting the use of its models for mass surveillance or the development of autonomous weapons.
