Maduro raid questions trigger Pentagon review of top AI firm as potential ‘supply chain risk’
A dispute stemming from questions about the use of AI firm’s Anthropic’s model during the U.S. operation targeting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has triggered a Pentagon review of the company’s partnership, with senior officials raising concerns that Anthropic could represent an alleged “supply chain risk.”
Axios first reported on the growing tensions between the Pentagon and Anthropic, a tech company known for emphasizing safeguards on AI.
Anthropic won a $200 million contract with the Pentagon in July 2025.
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Its AI model, Claude, was the first model brought into classified networks.
Now, “the Department of War’s relationship with Anthropic is being reviewed,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told Fox News Digital.
“Our nation requires that our partners be willing to help our warfighters in any fight.”
According to a senior administration official, tensions escalated when Anthropic asked whether Claude was used for the raid to capture Maduro, “which caused real concerns across the Department of War indicating that they might not approve if it was.”
“Given Anthropic’s behavior, many senior officials in the DoW are starting to view them as a supply chain risk,” a senior War Department official told Fox News Digital. “We may require that all our vendors and contractors certify that they don’t use any Anthropic models.”
The War Department official said an executive from Anthropic raised the question with an executive at Palantir, its partner in Pentagon contracting. “The Palantir executive informed the Pentagon of this exchange because he was alarmed that the question was raised in such a way to imply that Anthropic might disapprove of their software being used in that raid.”
Palantir could not immediately be reached for comment.
Anthropic disputed that characterization. A spokesperson said the company “has not discussed the use of Claude for specific operations with the Department of War” and has not discussed such matters with industry partners “outside of routine discussions on strictly technical matters.”
The spokesperson added that Anthropic’s conversations with the Pentagon “have focused on a specific set of Usage Policy questions — namely, our hard limits around fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance — none of which relate to current operations.”
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“We are having productive conversations, in good faith, with DoW on how to continue that work and get these complex issues right,” the spokesperson said.
Pentagon officials, however, denied that restrictions related to mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons are at the center of the current dispute.
The Pentagon has been pushing leading AI firms to authorize their tools for “all lawful purposes,” seeking to ensure commercial models can be deployed in sensitive operational environments without company-imposed restrictions.
A senior War Department official said other leading AI firms are “working collaboratively with the Pentagon in good faith” to ensure their models can be used for all lawful purposes.
“OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and xAI’s Grok have all agreed to this in the military’s unclassified systems with one agreeing across all systems already, and we are optimistic the rest of companies will get there on classified settings in the near future,” the official said.
How this conflict resolves could shape future defense AI contracting. If the department insists on unrestricted access for lawful military uses, companies may face pressure to narrow or reconsider internal safeguards when working with national security customers.
Conversely, resistance from companies with safety-focused policies highlights growing friction at the intersection of national security and corporate AI governance — a tension increasingly visible as frontier AI systems are integrated into defense operations.
Neither Anthropic nor the Pentagon confirmed whether Claude was used in the Maduro operation. Advanced AI systems like Claude, however, are designed to do something human analysts struggle with under time pressure: digest enormous volumes of information in seconds.
In a high-risk overseas operation, that could mean rapidly sorting intercepted communications, summarizing intelligence reports, flagging inconsistencies in satellite imagery, or cross-referencing travel records and financial data to confirm a target’s location. Instead of combing through hundreds of pages of raw intelligence, planners could ask the system to surface the most relevant details and identify potential blind spots.
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AI models can also help war planners run through scenarios — what happens if a convoy reroutes, if weather shifts or if a target moves unexpectedly. By quickly synthesizing logistics data, terrain information and known adversary patterns, the system can present commanders with options and risks in near real time.
The debate over fully autonomous weapons — systems capable of selecting and engaging targets without a human decision-maker in the loop — has become one of the most contentious issues in military AI development. Supporters argue such systems could react faster than humans in high-speed combat. Critics warn that removing human judgment from lethal decisions raises profound legal and accountability concerns if a machine makes a fatal mistake.
Trump says US pilots were ‘hit pretty bad in the legs’ during Maduro capture mission
President Donald Trump revealed Friday that U.S. helicopter pilots were “hit pretty bad in the legs” during the high-risk mission that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro — even as he described the operation as “unbelievable” and over “in a matter of minutes.”
Speaking at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he honored the special forces involved in January’s Operation Absolute Resolve, Trump disclosed that three pilots were wounded while landing under machine gun fire.
“They were hit pretty bad in the legs,” Trump said, describing the assault. He said the pilots were landing “a big chopper and then being shot at some close range by machine gun,” adding that snipers “were stationed” and neutralized the threat quickly.
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Despite the injuries, Trump portrayed the raid as a stunning display of U.S. military dominance.
“That night, the entire world saw what they call military — my U.S. military — is capable of,” he said. “That was an unbelievable operation.”
Nearly 200 U.S. troops participated in the mission, and seven were injured, according to U.S. officials. Venezuela’s defense ministry has said 83 people were killed on its side, including Venezuelan security forces and 32 Cuban personnel.
Trump visited Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to meet privately with the families of the operators involved, whose identities remain classified, and to publicly praise what he has repeatedly called a “spectacular” operation that demonstrated American strength.
The president has also hinted at a secret weapon he calls the “discombobulator” used in the operation to disable Venezuelan communications and equipment and disorient personnel.
“They even talk about the discombobulator because they never got a shot off. The Russian equipment didn’t work. The Chinese equipment didn’t work. Everyone’s trying to figure out why it didn’t work.”
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“We have an amazing group of people before me, very proud of you,” the president said in an address to military personnel and families on base. “I have no higher honor in life than to be your commander in chief.”
He also praised Michael Whatley, former chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) who’s running for Senate in North Carolina. “If he gets in, you’re going to be taken care of. If he doesn’t get in, we’re going to be stripped in the military like they always do, the Democrats.”
He also said if Democrats win control in the midterm elections they would change the Fort Bragg name back to Fort Liberty again, as President Joe Biden did during his administration.
“We got it back very quickly, but they took it off. And if we don’t win the midterms, they’ll take it off again and take it off again. You can’t let that happen.”
Trump went on: “Our military, if the Democrats get in, we’ll be simply early misserved. But we rebuilt it in my first term, and now we’re making it stronger and bigger and better than ever before. The recruiting is through the roof.”
Trump was joined by first lady Melania Trump, who also spent time with military families during the base visit — one of the largest home stations for U.S. Army special operations forces.
Trump’s social media posts ahead of the visit highlighted what he called “extraordinary” relations between the United States and Venezuela’s interim leadership, including cooperation on oil revenue and transition planning.
After the dramatic capture of Maduro, his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, took over as Venezuela’s leader.
Rodríguez has publicly maintained that both Maduro and Cilia Flores are “innocent,” rejecting assertions of wrongdoing that led to their capture. Despite her alignment with Maduro, the U.S. has insisted it could assert influence over her leadership.
In late January, the U.S. and the interim Rodríguez government signed a massive energy pact. The U.S. has already begun marketing Venezuelan crude oil, with proceeds flowing into U.S.-controlled accounts to be disbursed at the discretion of the U.S. government.
Venezuela’s defense ministry said 83 people were killed in the mission on its own side, including Venezuelan security forces and 32 Cuban security personnel.
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is also home to units that could be deployed if diplomatic efforts in the Middle East falter, including Trump’s push for Iran to reach an agreement or face what he has warned could be a “very traumatic” outcome. The visit comes just as the U.S. deployed a second aircraft carrier, the USS Ford, to the region while talks continue.
The Pentagon has not revealed which military units were involved in the operation.
Trump repeatedly has hailed the Maduro capture as a “spectacular” operation that showed the U.S.’s capability to assert dominance in its own backyard. He called the special operators involved a “group of unbelievable talented patriotic people that love our country. You couldn’t hold them back.”
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Rubio defends US operation in Venezuela, calls out reporter for trying to start a fight
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the U.S. capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday, going on to call out a reporter for supposedly trying to stir up tension during a press conference.
Rubio made the statement during a joint appearance with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico. A reporter referenced Fico’s previous criticism of the U.S. operation against Maduro and asked whether he stood by it, leading Rubio to address the issue first while he was answering other questions from the same reporter.
“I think you asked him a question in order to, like, see if you can get him against us, or something… A lot of countries didn’t like what we did in Venezuela. That’s OK. That was in our national interest,” Rubio said.
“I’m sure there’s something you may do one day that we don’t like, and we’ll say we didn’t like that you did this,” Rubio continued, while turning to Fico. “So what? That doesn’t mean we’re not going to be friends, we’re not going to be partners.”
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“We have very close allies that didn’t like what we did in that regard. I can tell you what, it was successful. It was necessary, because the guy was a narco-terrorist, and we made him a bunch of offers,” the secretary continued.
“And look what’s happened in Venezuela in the six weeks since he’s been gone,” Rubio said, acknowledging that the country still has “a long way to go.”
“There’s still much work that needs to be done, but I can tell you Venezuela is much better off today than it was six weeks ago. So we’re very proud of that project. And I know some will disagree… I think everyone can now agree that Venezuela has an opportunity at a new future that wasn’t there six weeks ago,” he added.
Rubio’s statement comes days after President Donald Trump recounted the military’s strength during the operation to capture Maduro. Trump, speaking in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, honored U.S. special forces and their families for their roles in the operation.
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“It was in a matter of minutes before (Maduro) was on a helicopter being taken out of there. They had to go through steel doors,” Trump said Friday afternoon. “The steels were like it was like paper-maché. You know what paper-maché is? That’s weak paper.”
U.S. special operations forces carried out the successful capture of Maduro and his wife on sweeping narcotics charges. Trump celebrated that there wasn’t single U.S. casualty during the operation, despite Maduro being housed on a heavily-armed military base.
These guys blasted through every door,” Trump continued Friday. “They got up to him before he got to the big safe. But that wouldn’t have worked either, because they had equipment that was going to knock that out in a matter of minutes, but he never got there. It went so fast.”
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Maduro was whisked off on a helicopter, and brought to the U.S., where he faces federal charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and weapons-related offenses. He is being held in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City.
Maduro’s rise from bus driver to Chávez successor revealed in new documentary
The rise and fall of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro mirrors the reversal in fortune of his once-rich country.
Fox Nation’s new documentary special, “House of Maduro: Palace to Prison,” traces the arc of Maduro’s life from his beginnings as a bus driver to his eventual replacement of Hugo Chávez as Venezuela’s leader.
Simultaneously a character study and a geopolitical explainer, “House of Maduro” examines the political climate cultivated under Chávez and its downstream effects as it evolved under Maduro.
The country’s turmoil was exported in the form of mass migration, drug trafficking, human smuggling and crime, which bled into the United States and ultimately led President Donald Trump to order Maduro’s capture.
“What happens in Venezuela doesn’t stay in Venezuela,” host Rachel Campos-Duffy warns in the documentary. “What’s more, Venezuela stores weapons supplied by Russia, China, and Iran. And it allegedly hosts foreign terrorist groups like Hezbollah.”
HUNDREDS OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN VENEZUELA COULD BE RELEASED UNDER NEW AMNESTY BILL
“But what’s next for Venezuela? And what message does this send to America’s foreign adversaries?”
The region faces a turning point. U.S. warships and 10,000 Marines now sit off Venezuela’s coast. Trump has closed the country’s airspace, and Maduro is branded the head of a terrorist cartel. It remains to be seen whether the end of Maduro’s rule will trigger a dangerous new showdown in America’s backyard, or if cooperation will prevail.
SANCTIONED RUSSIAN JET TOUCHES DOWN IN CUBA, ECHOING SECRET FLIGHTS BEFORE MADURO’S OUSTER
These questions are explored in “House of Maduro” through a historical lens. Analysis begins with the rise of Chávez, who once called the president of the United States “the devil” at a United Nations meeting. He died of cancer in 2013, but not before he designated Maduro his preferred successor in his final televised address.
The documentary explains that, when Maduro first took office, he was considered by some to be “a stupid person because he made a lot of errors in his speech.”
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“He would say things that really did not make any sense. We laughed about him,” one guest said in an interview.
“And really, it was our loss. We underestimated Maduro.”
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Maduro’s climb to power and capture by U.S. forces unfold in great detail in Fox Nation’s newest special, “House of Maduro: Palace to Prison.”
Subscribe to Fox Nation to stream it now.
Nicaragua blocks pathway used by Cuban migrants to reach the US
Nicaragua’s government has blocked Cuban citizens from entering the Central American country without a visa in a move that eliminates a route for Cuban migration into the U.S.
For years, Cuban migrants would fly to Nicaragua and meet up with smugglers, who would then help them migrate north through Central America and Mexico to get to the U.S. border, according to The Associated Press.
However, Nicaragua’s government confirmed to the AP that on Sunday it suspended an exemption that allows Cubans to enter Nicaragua without a visa.
Nicaragua’s move comes after President Donald Trump in late January declared a national emergency via an executive order over Cuba, accusing the communist regime there of aligning with hostile foreign powers and terrorist groups while moving to punish countries that supply the island nation with oil.
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What remains for Cuban migrants is primarily Guyana, a small South American nation where Cubans have also traveled in order to reach the U.S.
From Guyana, migrants normally travel through the perilous jungle trenches of the Darien Gap dividing Colombia and Panama.
In the past, migrants with few other options have also taken precarious boat rides from Cuba to Florida’s coast.
SANCTIONED RUSSIAN JET TOUCHES DOWN IN CUBA, ECHOING SECRET FLIGHTS BEFORE MADURO’S OUSTER
In Trump’s executive order, the president said Cuba aligns itself with and provides support for “numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States,” naming Russia, China, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.
The administration said Cuba hosts Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility, which the order states attempts to steal sensitive U.S. national security information.
Last November, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Democracy is on trial in the coming Elections in the beautiful country of Honduras on November 30th.”
“Will Maduro and his Narcoterrorists take over another country like they have taken over Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela?” he asked.
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Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro was captured in a U.S. military operation in early January.
Venezuelan opposition leader seized by armed men after being released from jail
María Corina Machado said Monday that a Venezuelan opposition leader was seized in Caracas shortly after being released from jail.
Machado wrote in a post on X that Juan Pablo Guanipa, a key ally, was kidnapped by heavily armed men in civilian clothing in the Los Chorros area of the capital.
“We demand his immediate release,” she said.
Alfredo Romero, the president of the Venezuelan human rights group Foro Penal, said 35 political prisoners were released on Sunday, including Guanipa, who was initially arrested in May.
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Reuters reported that Venezuelan authorities were seeking court approval to place Guanipa under house arrest.
The country’s Public Ministry alleged that he violated the terms of his release but provided no additional details and did not say whether he had been re-arrested.
Guanipa’s Primero Justicia party said on X that he was forced into a silver Toyota Corolla during the incident.
“We hold Delcy Rodríguez, Jorge Rodríguez, and Diosdado Cabello responsible for any harm to Juan Pablo’s life,” the party wrote. “We call on the international community for the immediate release of Juan Pablo Guanipa and for an immediate and unconditional end to the persecution of the opposition.”
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Rodríguez has been serving as the interim president of Venezuela since the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores earlier this year.
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In late January, President Donald Trump said Venezuela was releasing political prisoners at a “rapid rate,” praising the move as a “powerful humanitarian gesture” by the country’s leadership.
An estimated 687 political prisoners remain in custody in Venezuela as of Feb. 2, according to Foro Penal.