Home Mashable Despite the backlash, Donald Trump is using AI again

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US President Donald Trump during a Presidential memorandum signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, June 29, 2026

At a time when AI is facing a growing backlash, when even his own administration is tiptoeing towards real regulatory oversight of the industry, President Donald Trump is doubling down on his own usage of what can only be described as AI slop — this time containing dubious deepfakes.

On July 1, Trump posted an AI-generated video casting himself as "Doctor Trump," a white-coat-wearing physician offering a "treatment plan" for “Trump Derangement Syndrome," a phrase he and his supporters have long used to attack his critics.

The clip opens like a pharmaceutical ad, with an AI-generated Trump wearing a stethoscope and telling viewers he has a plan to treat TDS. It then cuts to fake versions of celebrity critics, including Whoopi Goldberg, Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts, Rosie O’Donnell, Edward Norton, and John Leguizamo, who appear as "patients" describing their supposed symptoms and recovery.

The fake De Niro says he could not eat or sleep, and was "constantly angry." The fake O’Donnell says she had been "suffering for over a decade." The fake Goldberg describes herself as a lost cause. The clip ends with Trump’s AI persona prescribing a mix of media criticism, prayer, and Diet Coke.

Social media, outside Trump's MAGA followers, was not amused.

This is not Trump's only bizarre interaction with AI this week. On Wednesday, the president visited the newly built Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, where he interacted with an AI version of Roosevelt.

The library, which opens to the public on July 4, lets visitors explore Roosevelt’s letters, speeches, photographs, and other archival material, including via a lifelike AI version of the former president, all created with help from Microsoft.

During the visit, Trump asked the AI Roosevelt whether the Panama Canal was his greatest achievement. The digital Roosevelt said the canal was one of his proudest achievements, but also pointed to parks, medicine, and the Square Deal.

Trump later told the audience he had "a conversation with Theodore Roosevelt," a comment which circulated online before clips made clear he was referring to the library’s AI exhibit. Not everyone was convinced, however.

This is all part of a broader pattern on Trump’s social feeds, where AI-generated images and videos have frequently found a home.

Earlier this week, Trump shared what appeared to be an AI image of a giant golden eagle attached to the White House’s Truman Balcony, calling it “A Golden Gift to the White House for its 250th Birthday Year." The "gift" was also shared by official White House social media accounts.

The image’s metadata suggested it was indeed created with Google Gemini. Photos taken later that evening showed no giant gold bird attached to the White House, which is generally the kind of thing people would notice.

Social media users wondered why the shield on the eagle appeared to include 11 stars instead of 13. Others mocked the design as “tacky” and questioned the caption — since 2026 marks 250 years since American independence, not 250 years since the White House was built (it was completed in 1800).

In April, Trump posted and then removed an AI-generated image that showed him as a Jesus-like figure healing a sick man. After backlash from conservative and religious figures including Riley Gaines, Megan Basham, and Bishop Robert Barron, Trump said he thought the image depicted him as a medical worker "making people better." He has also previously posted an AI image of himself as the Pope.

Trump has also shared AI-generated videos and images that place him in more stylized or exaggerated roles. In May, Trump went on a spree, posting more than 20 mostly AI-generated images or clips in about 90 minutes, including images targeting Barack Obama, Gavin Newsom, Hakeem Jeffries, JB Pritzker, and others.

Another AI-generated video, shared in June and created by Trump-backed congressional candidate Anthony Constantino, depicted Trump as a globe-trotting hero, including scenes of him riding a lion, appearing on Mount Rushmore, riding a camel, and appearing as beloved Japanese character Naruto.

The Naruto-style imagery added to an existing backlash from anime and manga fans in Japan, where about 20,000 people have signed a petition titled “Protect Japanese Manga” back in March protesting the White House’s use of imagery from Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Naruto, and other franchises in political posts.

According to the petition, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already contacted the U.S. Embassy in Japan over unauthorized use of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Nintendo imagery.

In short, AI has become a regular part of Trump’s online presence. Not in any serious policy-based sense, but as a tool for memes, self-promotion, political attacks, and spectacle.

We'll wait to see whether that helps Team Trump in the 2026 midterm elections. But with the president at an all-time low approval rating, and AI not faring much better in surveys, it's hard to see how such slop-like usage can do anything more than amuse his most hardcore fans.



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