US President Donald Trump ordered on Friday that all federal agencies stop using software developed by Anthropic, the company responsible for creating the Claude AI model.

"I am directing every federal agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!" Trump said in a Truth Social post.

"There will be a six-month phase-out period for agencies like the Department of War who are using Anthropic’s products, at various levels. Anthropic better get their act together, and be helpful during this phase-out period, or I will use the full power of the presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences to follow," he added.

Trump justified his decision over "Anthropic's leftism," calling the company "left-wing nut jobs" that tried to "strong-arm the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution."

"Their selfishness is putting American lives at risk, our troops in danger, and our national security in jeopardy," he added.

The moves further set a precedent that US law alone would constrain how AI is deployed on the battlefield, with the Pentagon seeking to preserve all flexibility in defense and not be limited by warnings from the technology's creators against powering weapons with unreliable AI.

In a statement, Anthropic said it would challenge any risk designation by the Department of Defense in court.

"We believe this designation would both be legally unsound and set a dangerous precedent for any American company that negotiates with the government," the company said.

"No amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons."

The tension has been building up between Anthropic and the US government, with the company wanting to ensure that its software was not being used to pursue mass surveillance of Americans and the development of fully autonomous weaponry.

According to a report by Axios, the Pentagon demanded a new agreement with the AI company to deploy it for “all lawful purposes,” ranging from weapons development and intelligence collection to direct battlefield operations.

This led to disagreements between the Pentagon and Anthropic, as Claude is not intended for offensive use, per Anthropic's public usage policies.

The main conflict arose after a report by The Wall Street Journal, where Claude was allegedly utilized, through Anthropic’s existing partnership with the software firm Palantir, in the operation to capture former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.

“Everything's on the table, including dialing back the partnership with Anthropic or severing it entirely,” a Pentagon official said, according to Axios. “But there'll have to be an orderly replacement for them, if we think that's the right answer.”

The Pentagon was now working with OpenAI, Alphabet (the developer of Google's Gemini), and xAI (developer of GrokAI) to establish these more permissive contracts, the Axios report added.

The Jerusalem Post Staff and Reuters contributed to this report.