Trump Administration's Anthropic Ban Puts U.S. AI Lead at Risk

(JOEL SAGET / AFP via Getty Images)

A figurine is seen in front of the logo of the U.S. AI company Anthropic during a photo session in Paris, France, on Feb. 13, 2026.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration just effectively declared the developer of arguably the United States' most advanced AI models a greater national security threat than DeepSeek or any other Chinese AI developer. After it was clear that Anthropic, the AI lab behind the Claude family of models, would not meet the Department of Defense's Feb. 27 deadline to agree to the Pentagon demands on AI use, Trump announced he was ordering all federal agencies to cease using Anthropic's AI tools, saying that some agencies, like the DoD, would have a six-month phase-out period, describing the company as a "Radical Left AI company" run by "Leftwing nut jobs." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced he was directing the Department of Defense to designate Anthropic a "Supply-Chain Risk to National Security," meaning that effective immediately, no contractor, supplier or partner doing business with the military could conduct "any commercial activity" with the company.