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In this illustration, the Claude AI app is seen in the app store on a phone on February 16, 2026 in New York City. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, the Defense Department used Anthropic’s Claude Ai, via its Palantir contract, to help with the attack on Venezuela and capture former President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence assistant app jumped to the No. 2 slot on Apple’s chart of top U.S. free apps late on Friday, hours after the Trump administration sought to block government agencies’ adoption of the startup’s technology.<\/p>\n
The rise in popularity suggests that Anthropic is benefiting from its presence in news headlines, stemming from its refusal to have its models used for mass domestic surveillance or for fully autonomous weapons. <\/p>\n
“The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution,” President Donald Trump<\/a> wrote in a Friday Truth Social<\/a> post.<\/p>\n Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> said he asked that Anthropic be labeled as a supply-chain risk to national security<\/a>, and therefore, no U.S. defense contractor would be able to draw on Anthropic tools.<\/p>\n “It is the Department’s prerogative to select contractors most aligned with their vision,” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in a statement<\/a>. “But given the substantial value that Anthropic’s technology provides to our armed forces, we hope they reconsider.”<\/p>\n Historically, other AI chat apps have been more popular among consumers than Claude. OpenAI’s ChatGPT sat at No. 1 on the App Store rankings on Saturday, while Google’s<\/a>