Chicago – February 27, 2026
President Donald Trump has directed all U.S. federal agencies to cease their use of artificial intelligence technology developed by the San Francisco‑based AI laboratory Anthropic, marking a sharp escalation in a high‑stakes dispute over AI safety and national security.
In a social media post, Trump declared that Anthropic’s leadership had made a “catastrophic error” by attempting to restrict how the Department of Defense could deploy its models, and he ordered all agencies to “immediately cease” work with the company’s systems.
The Pentagon had previously demanded largely unrestricted use of Anthropic’s AI in defense and intelligence applications, while the firm insisted on safeguards to prevent mass surveillance of citizens and deployment in fully autonomous weapons.
After the sides failed to reach a compromise by a Friday deadline, the Trump administration not only imposed a rapid halt on most agencies’ use of Anthropic tools but also designated the company a supply‑chain risk, which could block many military contractors from working with it.
