Trump Bars Every Federal Agency From Using Anthropic's AI After the Company Refuses the Pentagon

After Anthropic declined to lift restrictions on military uses of its AI models, Trump on February 27, 2026 ordered federal agencies to stop using the company's products, writing, "We don't need it, we don't want it, and will not do business with them again!" He described the company as a "RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY" attempting to "DICTATE HOW OUR GREAT MILITARY FIGHTS." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth simultaneously designated Anthropic a supply chain risk to national security, saying "no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic." Anthropic said it objected to uses including mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons and could not "in good conscience accede to their request." Reporting said the company lost a $200 million Defense Department contract.

A national security designation applied after a vendor declined to change its terms of service, paired with a president's public characterization of the company's politics, raises the question whether the instrument addressed supply chain risk or applied leverage.

Legal analysts noted that 10 U.S.C. 3252 restricts a designated company only from contracts involving national security systems and does not authorize barring all commercial relationships. In subsequent litigation the government argued Hegseth's social media post was not a final agency action.