Trump readies executive order to remove Anthropic's Claude from federal agencies

Scoop: White House readies executive order to weed out Anthropic

Why it matters: The move would escalate the administration's fight with Anthropic, which is already suing the Pentagon over its supply chain risk designation. * It would also formalize a broader push across agencies to remove Claude after President Trump said his administration would not use "woke" AI. State of play: Government agencies like the Treasury Department have already begun to offboard Anthropic. * Anthropic in a lawsuit on Monday said Congress in its procurement laws did not give the administration the authority to blacklist a U.S. company over protected speech. * The administration has argued that Anthropic's "safeguards" pose a national security threat in the context of industry intervening during military operations. Context: In his first term, Trump used executive orders to target foreign tech firms on national security grounds, including actions involving Chinese telecom companies and TikTok. * But there's little precedent for an order severing ties with a specifically named U.S. company outside standard procurement processes. * In the case of Huawei, Trump did not explicitly name the company in his executive order -- that took an act of Congress. What's next: The order could be issued as soon as this week, one source familiar said. * A White House official said "any policy announcement will come directly from" the president and that "discussion about potential executive orders is speculation." The bottom line: Trump is known for taking an expansive view of presidential authorities and getting creative with the law. Editor's note: This story has been updated with comment from the White House.

Trump order cutting ties with Anthropic likely coming later this week, sources say

Washington -- President Trump will issue an executive order to remove Anthropic's AI technology from agencies across the executive branch, sources familiar with the matter tell CBS News, saying the move could come as soon as this week. Mr. Trump announced on Feb. 27 that he was ordering all federal agencies "to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic's technology" after a dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic over guardrails on the military's use of Claude, the company's flagship AI model. The Pentagon has initiated a six-month phaseout of Claude. Other agencies, including the Treasury Department, have said they were discontinuing use of Anthropic's products. Axios first reported that the White House was preparing an executive order to formalize the president's directive. The showdown between Anthropic and the Trump administration stems from restrictions the company sought on using Claude for mass surveillance and autonomous lethal weapons. The Pentagon rejected those guardrails, saying the military must be able to deploy the tech for "any lawful use." The two sides failed to reach an agreement late last month, prompting the president to announce that agencies should stop using the company's products. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth soon issued an order deeming Anthropic a supply chain risk, a designation typically reserved for companies linked to foreign adversaries. Anthropic filed suit on Monday seeking to block both the Pentagon's supply chain risk determination and the president's directive, saying the administration was illegally retaliating for speech protected by the First Amendment. "Anthropic's contracts with the federal government are already being canceled. Current and future contracts with private parties are also in doubt, jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in the near-term," said the lawsuit, filed in California. "On top of those immediate economic harms, Anthropic's reputation and core First Amendment freedoms are under attack. Absent judicial relief, those harms will only compound in the weeks and months ahead."