Happy Tuesday. Here’s the Tuesday Tech Drop, the past week’s top stories at the intersection of technology and politics.

Pete Hegseth applies pressure over AI

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei for a meeting at the Pentagon on Tuesday as the Defense Department attempts to pressure the artificial intelligence company to loosen its restrictions around the use of its technology to spy on Americans and to enable weapons to fire without human involvement. The Defense Department is currently heavily reliant on the AI tool, Claude, and Anthropic’s executives have thus far resisted the pressure campaign. Needless to say, Anthropic acquiescing to Hegseth on this matter would open up the likelihood of yet more powerful AI tools being deployed against people abroad and living within U.S. borders.

Read more from CNBC on the feud between Anthropic and the Pentagon here. 

Trump sons’ self-enrichment plans

Donald Trump’s sons have invested in an Israeli-backed drone company that’s slated to do business with the Trump administration and has boasted about its ability to kill people at low cost. 

Read my blog on the Trumps’ investment in Xtend here. 

Tony Gonzales’ text messages

There are now bipartisan calls for Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, to resign after unearthed text messages suggest that he had a sexual relationship with a former staffer who died by suicide. Gonzales denied the allegations in November and told reporters on Tuesday that he has no intention of resigning. My MS NOW colleague Steve Benen has done a great job keeping up with the scandal surrounding Gonzales.

Read his post on calls for Gonzales to resign here. 

Candace Owens vs. Erika Kirk

Far-right influencer Candace Owens recently promoted the upcoming release of a film that targets Turning Point USA executive Erika Kirk with unproven conspiratorial claims that seek to implicate Kirk in the death of her husband, Charlie Kirk. So continues the growing MAGA civil war.