The midterm elections are less than a month away. You might, therefore, expect Republicans to fixate on political messaging that galvanizes loyal voters and attracts independents, especially since the polls suggest that the GOP is facing the loss of both the House and the Senate.
Political messaging certainly is at the forefront of many Republican minds, just not President Donald Trump’s.
Posting to Truth Social on Thursday, Trump declared, “The White House considers anyone that uses the term ‘artificial intelligence,’ as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, ‘super intelligence,’ THE ENEMY!”
Trump has already signed an executive order requiring U.S. government agencies to refer to artificial intelligence as “super intelligence.” For Republicans, however, Trump’s “ENEMY” post isn’t simply eccentric behavior from a president already known for it. Coming so close to an election that will heavily shape political power for the next two years, Trump’s screed represents self-destructive GOP messaging.
In the final stretch before Election Day, Trump is suggesting that he’s focused on the whims of his own mind rather than on the key voter concerns of living costs and the economy. Trump is currently very unpopular (with approval ratings in the low-to-mid 30s in most polls), but he’s also the unquestioned, undeniable Republican figurehead. In turn, what Trump says is seen by many Americans as reflecting what the GOP stands for. What Trump prioritizes, other Republicans also prioritize. What Trump ignores, Republicans are also seen to ignore.
Demanding obedience to a unilateral name change from “artificial intelligence” to “super intelligence” does not make Republicans look appealing in that regard. Indeed, it risks making Republicans appear so absurd as to be actively malicious toward voters.
As my colleague Tim Carney points out, “How dumb Trump looks is how dumb the Latinx people look, and the folks who remove every mention of ‘parent’ and replace it with ‘caregiver.’” Republicans can run independent races and try to limit their exposure to Trump. Many are doing so with increasing passion/panic. But Trump always looms large.
Still, this rhetoric is harmful to the president himself. It portrays Trump in a light similar to that in which his predecessor, President Joe Biden, came to be perceived: at best, as someone increasingly detached from the great responsibilities of the nation’s highest office; at worst, as someone actively sabotaging the national interest to insulate his own ego.
SIBERIAN PLAGUE LAB DEATH SHOWS WHY MOSCOW CAN’T BE TRUSTED
Trump’s ego has often precipitated his politically inopportune outbursts. We’ve seen this in debates over crowd sizes at his rallies, the naming of geographic locations (Gulf of Mexico vs. Gulf of America), and his vitriolic treatment of perceived opponents (such as Trump’s insults of actor Rob Reiner following Reiner’s murder). But obsessing over changing a commonly understood, globally agreed-upon name for something of extraordinary economic and political importance is, put simply, borderline insane, especially when accompanied by a threat that anyone who fails to comply will be judged an “ENEMY.”
There is no reason for this change beyond Trump’s egotistical fixation on seeing his whims conquer an existing consensus. But considering that “super intelligence” is used in the field of artificial intelligence to describe next-generation systems, Trump’s effort is counterproductive in purely technical terms. And what of Trump’s decision to wage this war amid an election that will shape the remainder of his term?
To borrow from Mr. Spock, it is highly illogical. And certainly not super intelligent.