Trump suggests rebranding AI with a new name, says he’s also creating an AI Force

Donald Trump has decided the AI debate needs a new label — or several. On Truth Social, he said the phrase “Artificial Intelligence” is “inaccurate” and “very ineloquent,” then floated a poll with three alternatives: Superior Intelligence, Extreme Intelligence and Supreme Intelligence. The vote was still open when this was published.

That was only the opening act. A couple of hours later, Trump claimed that efforts to halt the “decimation, or destruction, of AI” were another Democratic hoax, lumping them in with his familiar list of grievances. He also said he would not let it happen, and argued that the attack on data centers had already been blunted because people had realized how “wealthy and prestigious” those projects were for local communities.

The problem, as usual, is that the post comes with heat and almost no evidence. Trump offered none for the idea that concern about AI or data centers is a manufactured plot. In the real world, both parties have gone after data centers, and New York has already become the first state to stop permits for large projects.

Trump’s tone also echoed what he said at a golf tournament last weekend, where he said he was open to “guardrails” but also complained that “negative forces” were pushing the issue. This time he went further, saying he will “cherish” the AI industry, help it and watch over it as it grows. Then came the bigger flourish: he says he is forming an AI Force, modeled on the Space Force he created in his first term, and plans to announce an AI “Czar” soon. What that office or force would actually do remains unstated, which feels very on brand.

The timing matters because the AI safety argument has genuinely sharpened. A researcher recently said he was leaving Anthropic over fears that leading AI companies think the technology could kill people by the end of the decade. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei then put out a plan to “pace the frontier,” with apparent backing from Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Trump’s answer is not regulation, but pageantry: rename the thing, declare a force, and hope the press release does the policy work.