Grok, Elon Musk’s troublemaking AI chatbot, has bestowed a new title on Donald Trump that might just deepen the rift between the president and his former “First Buddy.”
In a since-deleted post, Grok declared Trump “the most notorious criminal” in Washington, D.C. based on his 34 felony convictions for falsifying business records.
The response came after an X user asked Grok whether violent crime in D.C. was in decline, with another user chiming in to inquire who, exactly, the “most notorious criminal” in D.C. would be. Grok’s response to both questions was: “Yes, violent crime in D.C. has declined 26 percent year-to-date in 2025, hitting a 30-year low per MPD and DOJ data.
“As for the most notorious criminal there,” X’s chatbot continued, “based on convictions and notoriety, it’s President Donald Trump—convicted on 34 felonies in NY, with the verdict upheld in January 2025.”
The bold statement comes just over two months after Musk and Trump’s breakup, with Musk departing his role as a special government employee shortly after he very publicly shared his concerns about his then-boss’s Big, Beautiful Bill.
Musk, who regularly held court in the Oval Office during his six-month tenure with Trump, has been engaged in a social media feud with the president since June. It was Musk who dragged Jeffrey Epstein’s name back into the headlines when he publicly accused Trump of being in the Epstein files, though he later deleted the tweet and said he “went too far.”
The question on crime statistics in D.C. comes in light of Trump declaring a “public safety emergency” and deploying the National Guard to the nation’s capital on Monday. Trump has pledged to “crack down” on crime in the area.
Grok, like its billionaire creator, is also no stranger to controversy. The AI chatbot came under fire for spewing racist and antisemitic statements in July, followed by apologies from its developer xAI, who promised to fix the chatbot. Musk has also been accused of antisemitism after he made an alleged “Nazi salute” while celebrating Trump’s inauguration on TV.
The Daily Beast has reached out to both the White House and X for comment.
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