America’s billionaire president is preaching to his followers that the threat of artificial intelligence is a “hoax.”
“Concerning AI, when, in the History of Business, did anyone see the Leaders of an Industry call for Regulation that, if strongly implemented, will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy?” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday afternoon. “AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX.”
Trump compared the latest national furor over AI (sparked by industry insiders) to several other controversies that have plagued his presidency, including the investigation into Russian collusion in his 2016 presidential campaign, the Ukraine war, and both impeachment efforts against him.
The AI uproar is “no different from RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA—UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE—IMPEACHMENT HOAX #1—IMPEACHMENT HOAX #2—and all of the other HOAXES and SCAMS that America was forced to endure through the Destructionists’ and Deviants’ foul play and illegal conduct,” Trump wrote.
He added that he is “not happy” about the backlash, which he suggested has placed America in a backseat position amid the global race to dominate the burgeoning technology. He cited Google’s €13 billion deal with Finland to build out the company’s AI infrastructure, as well as Beijing’s recent dismissal of Silicon Valley’s urgent warnings to develop and implement AI safeguards (former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon cautioned last week that, in private, the people building large language models have expressed it could be capable of killing all humans by the end of the decade.)
“AI, and Data Centers, will be the Greatest Economic Development Engine in History—Bigger than Oil, Gold, Diamonds, or even the Internet. It will not be stopped by brilliantly run Destructive Forces during the Term of President DONALD J. TRUMP!” he concluded.
Trump has a lot to politically—and personally—gain from championing AI. Days into his second term, the president unveiled a $500 billion public-private venture to support AI development. The project was dubbed Stargate and backed by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX, an AI investment firm owned by the United Arab Emirates.
The president’s 2026 financial disclosures also reveal that he’s invested a sizable sum in tech companies pursuing AI projects, spending millions of dollars on stock purchases for Oracle, Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta, Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet.
But Trump’s opinion on the matter is seriously at odds with that of the American public. Recent polling indicates that the vast majority of Americans, including Republicans, have no interest in permitting the tech industry to build AI facilities in their backyards. An August survey published by Heatmap revealed that 75 percent of the public opposes data center development in their communities.
The growing divide between the president’s sentiments and the reality lived by the American public should serve as a reminder that Trump—who is worth an estimated $6.5 billion and owns hundreds of business entities and properties around the world—has almost nothing in common with the rest of the country. Trump will never be hard pressed to find drinking water like the residents of Flint, Michigan; he apparently doesn’t have to buy (or even pronounce) America’s increasingly expensive “groceries”; and will never experience the crushing toll of the housing crisis (a “big yawn,” he called it in June, while profiting off it), or need to split the cost at the gas pump between credit cards.
Last month, Trump even went so far as to claim that anyone who opposes data center development is “backwards and poor,” a sobering reminder that Trump simply does not care about the average American.