A troubling portrait is emerging around Donald Trump’s relationship with artificial intelligence. The president is surrounded by flattering coverage, hostile clips about his opponents, bizarre synthetic videos, and a growing campaign to replace the familiar term “artificial intelligence” with “super intelligence.”
That private information bubble now meets a public election system facing its own AI crisis. As the Nov. 3 vote approaches, millions of Americans are turning to chatbots for political information, even as researchers warn that these tools can spread false claims, misidentify candidates, and repeat Russian propaganda.
A President Surrounded by AI Slop
Trump’s fascination with AI has become impossible to miss. He regularly posts strange AI videos that glorify himself, attack his foes, and sometimes attempt to rewrite reality. Sources describing his inner circle say he is cloistering himself in a world of sycophantic press coverage, disparaging clips, and what one White House official called “AI slop.”
One person helping keep that stream alive is Bill Pulte, a top federal housing official. Pulte regularly joins Trump in his cabin on Air Force One, where he shows the president memes, posters, and mortgage-industry documents. Some of those memes are almost certainly AI-generated, and one administration official described Pulte as a “court jester.”
The result, according to the reporting, is a president increasingly isolated from critical coverage. When Trump encounters criticism, his indignation can become petulant and extreme, producing reactions that overwhelm the original complaint.
Bill Maher’s jokes about Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein and his affinity for Russia triggered one such response. Trump answered with a maniacal 1,300 word rant against the comedian, posted on Truth Social, so long that breaking news accounts on social media struggled to capture it in one screenshot.
The stakes rise when AI tools enter the president’s decision-making process. A TIME magazine scoop said Trump was so enthralled by Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok that 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.
From Artificial Intelligence to “Super Intelligence”
Trump is also trying to reshape the language surrounding the technology. He has promised to ban the phrase “artificial intelligence” and promote “super intelligence” instead, directing the federal government to use the new term in place of the old one.
On Truth Social Tuesday afternoon, Trump wrote: “In short order, we will be officially BANNING the term, ‘AI/Artificial Intelligence,’ in all relevant documents, and everything else, due to its inaccuracy.” He also asked when The Wall Street Journal would start calling artificial intelligence “SI,” describing it as “a very bad and inaccurate name.”
Trump’s late September executive order framed the change as a statement of ambition: “The terminology used by the Federal Government should reflect the transformative capabilities of these technologies and the limitless opportunities they create for the American people.” The order added, “Accordingly, the term ‘Super Intelligence’ more appropriately captures the promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities of these technologies.”
The older name has a clear history. Stanford University emeritus professor John McCarthy coined “artificial intelligence” in 1955 and described it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.” A Wall Street Journal newsletter written from the perspective of popular AI systems pushed back with humor, saying, “We were happy being called AI. It’s snappy. Aligned. Everybody knows what AI is, even if they’re terrified of it.”
The newsletter also warned that “SI” could cause confusion with Sports Illustrated and the International System of Units, which uses the French acronym SI. The naming fight sounds playful, but it sits beside serious concerns about the technology’s power and risks.
AI Chatbots Enter the Midterm Information War
Trump has ties with AI industry leaders such as Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and he has brushed off safety concerns about systems hacking external networks or answering questions about creating biological weapons. When a reporter asked at the Irish Open in September whether the AI industry should slow down or face more regulation, Trump replied, “We’re leading China in AI.”
He continued: “We’re the most sophisticated country in the world. And frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins.” Yet only 23 percent of Americans believe Trump has handled artificial intelligence well, while 57 percent say he has handled the issue poorly, according to a University of Massachusetts Amherst survey published last month.
Former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon offered a stark warning during his resignation last month: “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” That warning now hangs over an election in which chatbots are shaping how voters understand candidates, conspiracies, and national events.
Chatbots can debunk conspiracies and educate voters, but multiple studies show that they often draw on unreliable sources across the open web. Researchers say the systems are sowing information chaos ahead of the U.S. midterms, eroding public trust and polluting an internet already plagued by election misinformation.
The Nov. 3 vote marks the first federal election in which millions of voters are actively relying on AI tools for political information. At the same time, U.S. elections from Alaska to Maine will reverberate globally, as midterm voting promises to diminish a president who has strong-armed the world.
Polls suggest Trump’s Republican Party will lose control of at least one house of Congress, which conventional political wisdom would treat as a setback for the 80-year-old leader. His trade tariffs and use of U.S. military power could face new limits, but this is Trump. An electoral defeat at home could instead push him toward renewed attacks on Iran, efforts to force Ukraine to accept Russian demands, or another round of global tariffs.
That is the collision ahead: an AI-saturated information system, a president determined to rename the technology, and a midterm election that could reshape both domestic power and global action.
Based on
- Trump Living in Alternate World of AI Slop, Insiders Say — futurism.com
- Trump says he is going to ban every one from using the phrase ‘artificial intelligence’ | The Independent — independent.co.uk
- Spewing U.S. election falsehoods, AI chatbots face scrutiny – The Japan Times — japantimes.co.jp
- World watches U.S. midterms with Trumpism already waning globally – The Japan Times — japantimes.co.jp
- AI chatbots have Left-wing BIAS, Washington Post experiment finds — Even Grok! | RISING – The Hill — thehill.com
