New Delhi, June 14 -- WASHINGTON - Pete Hegseth had a simple message for anyone wondering whether he made the right call. Three months after the Defense Department designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk to national security and severed its $200 million government contract, the defense secretary took to X on Saturday to note that the passage of time had only confirmed his judgment. "Every passing day proves why that was the right move," he wrote.

The timing was pointed. A day earlier, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security had ordered Anthropic to disable access to its two most capable models - Fable 5 and Mythos 5 - for all foreign nationals, citing cybersecurity and national security concerns. The restriction, the f...