A former Trump administration AI policy adviser is blasting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over what he calls a “psychotic power grab” amid an escalating dispute between the Pentagon and artificial intelligence firm Anthropic.
The clash intensified after President Donald Trump insisted on his Truth Social platform Friday that the firm will no longer be allowed to do business with the federal government, and blasted it as a “Radical Left AI company.” The company has reportedly resisted Pentagon demands to remove safeguards preventing its AI models from approving the use of deadly force without human input.
In response, former AI adviser Dean W. Ball issued his own social media post accusing Hegseth of asserting sweeping authority over private industry.
“Think about the power Hegseth is asserting here,” Ball wrote Friday. “He is claiming that the DoD can force all contractors to stop doing business of any kind with arbitrary other companies.”
“In other words, every operating system vendor, every manufacturer of hardware, every hyperscaler, every type of firm the DoD contracts with—all their services and products can be denied to any economic actor at will by the Secretary of War,” the former AI adviser added.
Ball called the move “obviously a psychotic power grab” and warned, “It is almost surely illegal.”
He added that “the message it sends is that the United States Government is a completely unreliable partner for any kind of business.”
“The damage done to our business environment is profound,” Ball concluded. “No amount of deregulatory vibes sent by this administration matters compared to this arson.”
Think about the power Hegseth is asserting here. He is claiming that the DoD can force all contractors to stop doing business of any kind with arbitrary other companies.
In other words, every operating system vendor, every manufacturer of hardware, every hyperscaler, every type… https://t.co/iyALPrqPGA
— Dean W. Ball (@deanwball) February 27, 2026