Firestorm as Trump's wild 'crashout' reveals Pentagon's 'mass surveillance' plot

President Donald Trump lashed out at the artificial intelligence company Anthropic on Friday, slamming them for refusing to change their safeguard rules against automated use of weapons for the Defense Department, claiming they want to force generals to "obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution," and ordering the government to phase out any contracts they have to use the company's "Leftwing nut job" Claude AI model.

The outburst triggered an immediate reaction from elected officials and analysts on social media.

"Anthropic objected in part to the Department of Defense using its AI technology to engage in domestic mass surveillance," wrote Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA). "Do you agree that’s a radical left, woke position? That’s actually the Constitutional position, one that should be embraced by Americans regardless of party."

"This is because the Pentagon and Trump don’t like Anthropic’s language preventing their tech from being used to surveil Americans or for autonomous weapons," wrote Allison Gill of "Mueller, She Wrote." "Which means the Pentagon wants to use their tech to surveil Americans and build autonomous weapons."

"This afternoon's crashout brought to you by a bunch of nerds with very weird ideas about whether code is something you should be nice to," wrote financial expert George Pearkes.

"If I ever get in trouble with the mods at Bluesky, I'm going to shout at them for 'forcing me to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution,'" wrote Institute for Humane Studies Senior Director of Liberal Projects Aaron Ross Powell.

Some other commenters, though, noted that for all Trump's bluster, he is effectively giving up, since he had previously been considering much more drastic measures, like ordering Anthropic to change its policies under the Defense Production Act, or declaring the company a supply chain threat.

"If you liked the movie War Games, you’re going to love this administration’s plan," wrote former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance. "Thank you for drawing a line Anthropic. Please stick to it."

"I dunno what happens next but... this kinda seems like the Trump administration is just folding on Anthropic?" wrote Matt Gertz of Media Matters for America."

"Closest you're gonna get to Trump publicly backing down is him just cancelling Anthropic's contracts instead of designating them a supply chain risk as was threatened," wrote economics analyst Joey Politano. "Real kudos to Anthropic for standing up, real dumb moves by the WH to start this episode."