Scoop: White House readies executive order to weed out Anthropic
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The White House is preparing an executive order formally instructing the federal government to rip out Anthropic's AI from its operations, sources familiar with the matter told Axios.
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.
