Nearly two hours after President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he was banning Anthropic products from the federal government, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth took it one step further and announced that he was now designating the AI company as a “supply-chain risk”.
After a week of tense negotiations over the company’s acceptable use policies, the Pentagon gave Anthropic an ultimatum: agree by Friday, 5:30 PM EST, to let the Pentagon use Claude for “all legal purposes,” including for autonomous lethal weapons without human oversight and mass surveillance, or be designated a supply-chain risk. The designation, which is typically used for companies with ties to foreign governments that pose national security risks to the United States, will bar any company that uses Anthropic products from working with the Department of Defense.
In a tweet posted just after 5PM ET, Hegseth broadened the designation to encompass companies doing “any commercial activity with Anthropic,” reiterating Trump’s mandate that companies had six months to divest themselves from Anthropic products.
“Our position has never wavered and will never waver: the Department of War must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic,” he wrote. “Instead, @AnthropicAI and its CEO @DarioAmodei, have chosen duplicity. Cloaked in the sanctimonious rhetoric of ‘effective altruism,’ they have attempted to strong-arm the United States military into submission – a cowardly act of corporate virtue-signaling that places Silicon Valley ideology above American lives.”
Hegseth, as Secretary of Defense, has the ability to label a company a “supply-chain risk” at his own discretion. But the decision comes after the Pentagon made several other attempts to compel Anthropic to let them use Claude as they wished, including the threat to invoke the Defense Production Act.