Trump administration orders federal agencies and contractors to cease business with Anthropic after refusal on AI safeguards

The Trump administration directed all federal agencies to immediately cease use of Anthropic's technology after the company refused to drop restrictions on its AI models. President Trump announced the order on Truth Social and called for a six-month phaseout period. The move followed months of negotiations over a Pentagon contract worth up to $200 million. The Pentagon designated Anthropic a supply chain risk to national security after the company missed a 5:01 p.m. ET Friday deadline. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the designation bars contractors from commercial activity with Anthropic and allows continued services for no more than six months during a transition. Anthropic said it would challenge the designation in court and argued the secretary lacks authority to extend the ban beyond Department of War contracts. Anthropic said its objections were limited to two uses it views as outside current model capabilities: mass domestic surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapon systems. The company stated it supports all other lawful national security applications and that the exceptions have not affected any government missions. Hours after the announcement, OpenAI said it reached a deal with the Defense Department to provide AI technology for classified networks that includes prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and requires human responsibility for the use of force.