Trump Official Slams Anthropic Days After It Backed White House's Moonshot AI Theft Allegations: 'No AI Company More Hostile to the Warfight

On Friday, after Anthropic endorsed White House accusations that Chinese startup Moonshot AI stole U.S. artificial intelligence capabilities, a senior Defense official criticized the company over its military AI policies.

Anthropic Backs White House’s Moonshot AI Theft Claims The latest exchange began after White House Science and Technology adviser Michael Kratsios earlier this week alleged that China’s Moonshot AI conducted a “large-scale” effort to steal the capabilities of leading U.S.

AI systems through unauthorized model distillation.

Kratsios said the administration has information indicating Moonshot AI distilled capabilities from Anthropic’s Fable AI while developing its K3 model.

He also alleged the Chinese startup accessed Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA ) servers powered by the GB300 Grace Blackwell platform despite U.S. export restrictions on advanced AI chips.

We have information that Moonshot AI distilled Anthropic’s Fable for the development of its K3 model.

To do this they developed a sophisticated internal platform to conduct large scale distillation against U.S. models, allowing them to quickly switch between multiple methods of… — Director Michael Kratsios (@mkratsios47) July 22, 2026 Anthropic’s head of policy, Sarah Heck, publicly thanked Kratsios for raising the issue. “Thanks @mkratsios47 for speaking out on this important issue,” Heck wrote on X. “Illicit, adversarial distillation is IP theft and industrial espionage that supports adversary military and intelligence capabilities.

It is a national challenge that creates serious national security risks for the United States and democratic allies.” Thanks @mkratsios47 for speaking out on this important issue.

Illicit, adversarial distillation is IP theft and industrial espionage that supports adversary military and intelligence capabilities.

It is a national challenge that creates serious national security risks for the… — Sarah Heck (@SarahKHeck) July 22, 2026 Read Also: Anthropic Unveils Claude Opus 5, Says New Model Beats Rivals on Coding and Business Tasks Defense Official Turns Fire on Anthropic Days later, Defense Under Secretary Emil Michael challenged Anthropic despite its support for the administration’s stance on China.

Sharing Heck’s post on Friday, Michael wrote, “Interesting to hear that you are supporting national security @SarahKHeck! There is no AI company more hostile to the warfighter than @AnthropicAI.” He added, “Your products are being fully removed from the @DeptofWar because your company refuses allow the LAWFUL use your AI model.

No attempted psyop will change that.” Interesting to hear that you are supporting national security @SarahKHeck! There is no AI company more hostile to the warfighter than @AnthropicAI.

Your products are being fully removed from the @DeptofWar because your company refuses allow the LAWFUL use your AI model.

No… — Under Secretary of War Emil Michael (@USWREMichael) July 24, 2026 Anthropic did not immediately respond to ’s request for comment.

Michael has previously criticized Anthropic’s restrictions on military applications of its Claude chatbot, arguing the company has limited lawful defense use.

Anthropic’s Relationship With Trump Administration Evolves The criticism comes despite signs that Anthropic’s relationship with the Trump administration has improved in recent months.

In June, President Donald Trump said he had briefly viewed the AI startup as a potential national security concern but believed the company acted responsibly after complying with a U.S. government directive restricting access to its most advanced AI models.

Later in July, Anthropic announced that the Commerce Department had lifted export controls on its Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, ending restrictions imposed under national security authorities in mid-June.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published editors.

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