President Donald Trump’s obsession with AI is even grimmer than we believed.
The commander-in-chief has hardly hidden his enchantment with AI slop, regularly posting bizarre AI videos glorifying himself, denigrating his foes, and at times, attempting to rewrite reality.
But a behind-the-scenes look suggests that Trump is now completely lost in an AI alternate reality of his own making.
While Republicans scramble and prepare for what could be a disastrous midterm election season for their party, sources told the New York Times that Trump is cloistering himself in a world made of sycophantic press coverage, disparaging clips about his foes, and, not least of all, “AI slop,” in the words of one White House official.
One person keeping him hooked on the stuff is Bill Pulte, a top federal housing official. According to the reporting, Pulte regularly joins Trump in his cabin on Air Force One and shows him memes — some of which are almost certainly AI-generated — posters, and documents related to the mortgage industry. One administration official even described Pulte as a “court jester.”
Trump is now so isolated from critical coverage that his indignation and incredulity when encountering it can be petulant and extreme. When comedian Bill Maher — who you wouldn’t describe as particularly left wing — joked about Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein and his affinity for Russia, Trump’s response was absurdly disproportionate: a maniacal 1,300 word rant raging against Maher that he posted on his website Truth Social, which breaking news accounts on social media struggled to capture in one screenshot.
The signs of his AI infirmity have long been apparent. But some worry that AI is playing a direct role in the president’s decision-making, too. A recent scoop from TIME magazine reported that Trump is so enthralled by Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok that his conversations with it encouraged him to invade Venezuela and capture its president Nicolas Maduro.
Top Democrats are now demanding to see those Grok conversations and others.
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