What If Trump Thinks the AI Slop He Is Being Fed Is Real?
It is certainly possible that Donald Trump's bizarre rants, his insistence that everything is going great, and his certainty that he is the beloved leader of a grateful nation are not (just) a consequence of his delusion but also of a concerted effort to keep reality as far away from the president as possible.
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There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about the rapid and unregulated rise of artificial intelligence. One of them is that the technology is being used to dupe the elderly, persons with dementia, and particularly gullible or unintelligent individuals into making poor decisions based on the AI slop they are being fed.
In other words, people like Donald Trump.
Now, it’s pretty clear that the president is suffering from various mental disorders, but maybe some of his bizarre claims are not directly attributable to a textbook case of malignant narcissism or being such a prolific, compulsive liar that fact checkers have given up on correcting all of his false statements and even counting them.
Instead, what if people in his inner circle have invented an alternate reality for Trump to keep him mollified?
On Sunday night, for example, the president (twice) posted this AI-generated video of a supposed US attack on Kharg Island.
Trump posts AI slop with the caption, “Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!”
“Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!! President DJT,” he commented on one of them.
Obviously, there was no attack on the island that handles most of Iran’s oil exports, especially not one involving American troops in helicopters.
But what if Trump thinks there was?
It is entirely possible.
It would certainly explain why Trump keeps talking about “fake polls,” and that the “real polls” he is seeing show that he is beloved by his people.
Or why he thinks the war with Iran has been won 30+ times already when, in reality, it is showing no signs of ending, or that Iran’s leaders are begging him to negotiate.
Or why he is upset with Fox News when it strays from propaganda to actual reporting.
Or why he believes prices are coming down even though the war and his tariffs have pushed inflation to a higher level than when he took office.
Yes, delusion is one explanation, and perhaps the most likely one, but a possibility that should not be discounted is that all those documents Natalie is printing out, or the AI-slop that keeps finding its way into the president’s feed, are part of an effort to pacify him.
In theory, this is something that would eventually come out if the White House complies with the provisions of the Presidential Records Act, which mandates that just about every scrap of paper the commander-in-chief sees is preserved.
However, that not only seems highly unlikely (the administration is already claiming the law is unconstitutional), but it would also be too late.
Therefore, this is something that should be a top priority for investigators on Capitol Hill once Democrats win control of either chamber of Congress and have subpoena power.
