President Trump takes major action against AI company
President Trump said on Friday, amid a looming Pentagon deadline for AI startup Anthropic, that the company had made a ‘DISASTROUS MISTAKE’ stonewalling the DOW
by Summer Lane | February 27, 2026
President Donald Trump made a fiery statement on Friday afternoon about the future of AI startup Anthropic, a company that inked a $200 million contract with the Pentagon last year.
“THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL NEVER ALLOW A RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY TO DICTATE HOW OUR GREAT MILITARY FIGHTS AND WINS WARS!” the president said on Truth Social. “That decision belongs to YOUR COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, and the tremendous leaders I appoint to run our Military.”
Anthropic has been locked in a heated conflict with the Department of War, as it has reportedly blocked the Pentagon from accessing its full AI capabilities – an AI model named Claude.
“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,” President Trump said. “Their selfishness is putting AMERICAN LIVES at risk, our Troops in danger, and our National Security in JEOPARDY. Therefore, I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology.”
Anthropic’s tech was reportedly involved in the successful U.S. military operation in Venezuela during the raid on Nicolas Maduro’s residence, where he was arrested.
Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said on Thursday that Anthropic had until 5:01 PM ET on Friday to allow the DOW to utilize its tech for “all lawful purposes” or face termination of its federal contract.
Rumors had previously swirled that the Pentagon had wanted to utilize Anthropic’s Claude to develop mass domestic surveillance technology and autonomous weapons. Parnell said that these accusations were “fake” and being “peddled by leftists in the media.”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei released a statement this week arguing that the company understood that the DOW makes military decisions, and had no objection to that except “in a narrow set of cases.”
They specifically highlighted “mass domestic surveillance” and “fully autonomous weapons.”
Amodei noted, “The Department of War has stated they will only contract with AI companies who accede to ‘any lawful use’ and remove safeguards in the cases mentioned above. They have threatened to remove us from their systems if we maintain these safeguards; they have also threatened to designate us a ‘supply chain risk’—a label reserved for US adversaries, never before applied to an American company—and to invoke the Defense Production Act to force the safeguards’ removal. These latter two threats are inherently contradictory: one labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security.”
While there are certainly discrepancies between what the Pentagon and Anthropic are saying about the development of alleged autonomous weapons and mass surveillance, President Trump took swift action.
He said there will be a “six month phase out period” for federal agencies to remove Anthropic’s products from their offices. “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,” President Trump said.
He continued, “WE will decide the fate of our Country — NOT some out-of-control, Radical Left AI company run by people who have no idea what the real World is all about.”
Photo: Adobe Stock
