Sources: the White House is preparing an executive order formally instructing federal agencies to stop using Anthropic's AI tools after Trump called them “woke”
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.
Context & Ripple Effects
The administration had previously directed agencies to expand AI use and appoint chief AI officers, making a prospective Anthropic-specific removal a sharp change from a general adoption push.
The reported order follows signs that the split was already operational: the Pentagon had used Claude in a major operation shortly before the administration moved against Anthropic, while Treasury, State, and a federal housing agency were reported to be ending Anthropic use; State planned to switch to OpenAI.
First-order effects
- If issued, the order would require federal agencies using Anthropic tools to halt or replace them, turning a political criticism into a government-wide procurement and operational directive.
- Anthropic would face the loss or interruption of federal deployments just as some agencies were reportedly winding down its products and identifying alternatives.
Second-order effects
- Agencies would need to migrate workflows, controls, and staff practices to other providers; the reported State-to-OpenAI switch offers an early example of that substitution path.
- Rival AI vendors could gain federal demand, while procurement teams face added pressure to assess whether providers meet shifting administration expectations beyond technical capability and safeguards.
Third-order effects
- If this approach persists, federal AI purchasing could become a stronger mechanism for enforcing the administration's preferred model behavior and governance posture, not merely a channel for buying software.
- That would make government AI contracts more politically contingent, potentially encouraging vendors to tailor product policies and deployment terms to preserve access to public-sector customers.
The trend: This is one data point in the shift toward sovereign AI procurement, where governments use purchasing power to shape which AI systems—and what operating policies—are acceptable in public institutions.