A new A.I.-powered search tool that President Trump unveiled Tuesday to help Americans get information from the federal government provides facts that contradict false claims he has made about topics such as election fraud and immigration.
In an event announcing the website’s launch, Mr. Trump said the tool was “damn good” and would be “one front door for every single question” someone could ask of the federal government.
“With America.gov, the entire government will fit in the palm of your hand,” Mr. Trump said, adding, “everything will be answered easily and quickly.”
But the president would not like many answers that America.gov provides. Citing official government sources, the chatbot, which calls itself “America,” fact-checks an extensive list of Mr. Trump’s most common false claims. They include election fraud, immigration, tariffs, inflation and the president’s signature policy bill that he signed into law last year.
According to America.gov: It is Americans, and not foreign companies, that pay for Mr. Trump’s import tariffs; U.S. elections are generally safe and secure and prosecuted cases of voter fraud are “tiny” compared to the hundreds of millions of votes cast; Mr. Trump is wrong when he says that 25 million immigrants illegally crossed the border under his predecessor, President Joseph R. Biden Jr.; Consumer prices are not going down, as Mr. Trump frequently claims.
Largely citing figures from the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan scorekeeper, America.gov said that Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, signed into law last year, is estimated to add trillions of dollars to the national debt and cause more than 10 million people to lose their health insurance. The chatbot agreed with a statement that the law “on average made the poorest people in America even poorer and the richest people in America even richer.”
The chatbot avoids answering some questions it deems political, and in some cases supports Mr. Trump’s proclamations when it can cite an official government source to do so. The chatbot, for example, says that what was called the Gulf of Mexico is the “Gulf of America (formerly the Gulf of Mexico).” The website says on its F.A.Q. page that “America.gov does not provide campaign or party information. Its answers are based on published government sources, and you can review those sources yourself.”
The General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget, which jointly operate America.gov, did not respond to requests for comment.
The White House did not address a question about whether Mr. Trump knew that the new government website frequently contradicted him. In a statement, the White House said that “America.gov will continue to be updated to provide more features, resources, and information from the federal government.”
The statement added, “The president and administration have been clear about issues surrounding the 2020 election, the fact that foreigners will ultimately bear the cost of tariffs, and the economic benefits of the Working Families Tax Cuts.”
Democratic lawmakers quickly promoted many of the chatbot’s statements, which supported campaign talking points criticizing Mr. Trump’s policies.
“Finally, a straight answer from someone in the Trump administration,” Senator Adam Schiff of California wrote with a screenshot of America.gov saying that Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election. Mr. Schiff had recently asked some of Mr. Trump’s judicial nominees about the 2020 election during a public hearing. Some of the nominees declined to answer.
Dylan Freedman contributed reporting.
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