President Trump has long been a master of using social media for attention. And A.I. has supercharged his ability to do so.
On a recent weekend, Trump went on a tear posting a series of A.I.-generated images: Trump intimidating the prime minister of Canada with a hockey stick; Trump on horseback next to George Washington; an image of the moon with an American flag over it. (Caption: “The Moon Is Ours.”) It’s a glimpse into the world as Trump would like it to be. It’s also, for many, deeply unsettling.
Today, Peter Baker, our chief White House correspondent, writes about what Trump’s increasingly out-there posts say about the president’s state of mind — and the changing nature of the presidency.
60 posts in 10 hours
By Peter Baker
Just before noon on a holiday weekend earlier this month, while many Americans were at the beach, Trump’s social media account roared to life. In what has increasingly become his weekend habit, he unleashed a daylong barrage of posts that put the bully in bully pulpit.
There were images of Trump intimidating Canada’s prime minister with a hockey stick. Trump personally bombing enemy targets. Trump patrolling dark streets with killer robots. There were maps showing the United States taking over other countries. There were tributes to himself as “the Greatest President of All Time!”
The 60 messages posted online over 10 hours and 41 minutes offered a window into Trump’s own unique reality. For years, his social media feed was said to be a mirror of his id. But with A.I., it’s become the manifestation of how he wants to be seen in a more visual, visceral way — as a warrior, a conqueror, a historical figure (and a younger, thinner, more muscular version of himself).
It’s a measure of how much Trump has changed the nature of the presidency that all this has, to some extent, become routine.
Flooding the zone
To his defenders, Trump is a master of baiting his adversaries and getting them to react. “It’s called: We do a little trolling,” as he once put it. The more out there the message is, the more his supporters cheer. As abnormal as the images that he posts are for a president, Trump’s allies argue that they convey a raw quality that suits an age of no-holds-barred politics.
“The media and President Trump’s other critics have spent more than a decade complaining about his use of social media,” said Alex Bruesewitz, a former campaign aide. “They keep calling it ‘unpresidential,’ but if the president is doing it, it’s presidential by definition. I think most Americans appreciate the authentic and transparent way he uses these platforms.”
To Trump’s critics, who never considered him a model of stability in the first place, these frenetic bursts of fantasy and vanity are proof that the 80-year-old president is deteriorating further with age. But they’re also so frequent that their capacity to shock has diminished.
“He floods the zone with so much of it that we’ve become numb to just how bizarre it is,” said Sarah Matthews, Trump’s former deputy White House press secretary. “An 80-year-old president is spending a ridiculous amount of time consuming and reposting endless A.I. fan fiction portraying him as the biggest, strongest and most important person alive. It feels like we’re genuinely watching his brain rot in real time.”
Take Sept. 6, a Sunday. It was a striking day on Truth Social but one increasingly typical of the president’s weekend blitzes. While at his golf club in New Jersey, Trump started posting at 11:54 a.m. and kept returning to his account in bursts throughout the day. At 1:47 p.m., he posted six messages within two minutes. From 2:40 p.m. to 3:43 p.m., he circulated another 27 posts. He continued through the evening, letting up only after his final one of the night at 10:35 p.m.
Violence is a recurring theme. Trump relishes the idea of himself as a tough man staring down anyone who gets in his way. He smashes Iran with a giant hammer. He pilots a spacecraft blasting the planet.
He also posted a map showing the U.S. flag superimposed on Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Iceland, Cuba and all of Central America and the Caribbean islands — all under the label “United States of America.”
Canada, Mexico and Greenland have grown used to this sort of provocation, but Iceland was shocked to be included and summoned the U.S. ambassador to complain.
The social media president
Trump has always been a master of using social media for attention. But A.I. has allowed him to go much further than the mainly written posts of his first term. If social media is a window into what he is thinking at that moment, “A.I. makes that window far more vivid and frankly more disturbing,” said Matthews, his former press aide. “It feels like the more difficult reality gets for him, the more A.I. slop he posts.”
For Bruesewitz, the former campaign aide, Trump is an innovator paving the way to the future of politics, “the first true social media president.”
“He has always adapted to the times, using new technology and platforms to take his message straight to the public. His A.I. posts generate enormous attention whenever he hits send.”
We may have grown used to Trump’s social media posting. But with the help of A.I., he is producing more posts and stranger posts, which ensures that they continue to attract attention. One way or another, that seems to be the point.
MORE TOP NEWS
A.I. leaders call for slowing down
Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, called for a global slowdown of artificial intelligence development in an essay on Saturday. Top executives of other major A.I. companies agreed.
Amodei wrote that while he believed the technology could bring many benefits, it was advancing at too rapid a pace for researchers to continue safely. His essay amounted to one of the most full-throated calls for urgent action from a leading A.I. company executive to date.
OTHER NEWS
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Hard-liners in Iran succeeded in derailing a deal with the U.S. with a clandestine effort to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz, regime insiders said.
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Voters in Sweden went to the polls, with the center left and the center right in a close race and the far right aiming for a role in government.
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The leaders at a BRICS summit, divided over the war in Iran, called for “maximum restraint” in the Middle East, without casting blame on any particular country.
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The fighting in Yemen has forced more than 46,000 people to flee their homes in the past week, a U.N. agency said.
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The death toll from a fire on a passenger ferry in the Philippines rose to 76 as rescue efforts continued.
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Trump said it would be “fantastic” if Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland unified, breaking with decades of U.S. neutrality on the issue.
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Genta Koja, a Japanese conservative, was projected to win an election to become the governor of Okinawa. He backs Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s plan for a military buildup.
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Mujib Mashal, our South Asia bureau chief, traveled along the path of destruction left by Nepal’s floods. Watch the video.
WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING
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The medical drama “The Pitt” could make history at the Emmy Awards. Here’s what to know about the ceremony.
TOP OF THE WORLD
The most clicked link in your newsletter Friday was about the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition in London.
SPORTS
Tennis: Elena Rybakina dethroned reigning champion Aryna Sabalenka at the U.S. Open final. Ben Shelton took on Alexander Zverev for the men’s title. We have live coverage.
Football: Manchester City beat Manchester United with a goal from Erling Haaland.
ENCORE OF THE DAY
Celine Dion
After a battle with a rare neurological condition, Dion made a long-awaited return to evening-length live performance in Paris on Saturday. It was her first full concert in six years, kicking off a string of 26 shows. France is a huge deal to Dion, who grew up speaking French in Quebec. She sang in French for roughly two-thirds of the set list.
MORNING READ
As rising anti-immigrant sentiment and vigilante violence in South Africa ignite widespread outrage across the continent, the fallout has begun to hit the country’s musicians and entertainers.
The South African singer Tyla canceled a performance in Nigeria after protests. Some Nigerian fans accused her of staying silent instead of using her platform to condemn the anti-immigrant attacks. Salif Keïta, a revered musician from Mali, canceled a show in South Africa in protest. “I am not closing the door on South Africa,” he wrote on social media. “I am closing the door on violence.” Read more about the backlash.
AROUND THE WORLD
Sipping Bordeaux for 42.2 kilometers
At the Marathon des Châteaux du Médoc, a race through vineyards in southwestern France, speed is not the priority. The main goal for about 8,500 runners each year is trying various wines, dancing to live music, and enjoying croissants, oysters and steak.
Most runners finish right before the official cutoff of six hours and 30 minutes. Anything faster is a “waste,” one veteran runner said. Read more and check out the festive atmosphere.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Read: In “Call It Evil,” a philosopher argues that we’re failing to see evil’s widespread hold on our culture.
Travel: Here’s how to spend 36 hours in Stockholm.
Watch: The Korean thriller “Hope” probes how movies, shows and games form our moral sensibility.
Cope: A.D.H.D. can change with age. Here’s how.
RECIPE
This classic Shanghainese dish features pork belly braised in light and dark soy sauces, Shaoxing wine and rock sugar until it’s deeply flavored, caramelized and glossy. It’s a popular method called “red cooking.”
WHERE IS THIS?
Where are they kayaking?
TIME TO PLAY
Here are today’s Spelling Bee, Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.
That’s it for today. See you tomorrow! — Katrin
Peter Baker was our guest writer today.
We welcome your feedback. Send us your suggestions at [email protected].
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