Trump Forgot How to Do Politics—if He Ever Knew How

The president is defending AI and data centers to the hilt, while most of the country recoils.

With their control of Congress in jeopardy ahead of November’s midterm elections, vulnerable Republicans would surely love—and certainly are looking for—a boost from President Trump. He could end his global trade war in an instant, and perhaps bring down skyrocketing prices on a wide range of consumer goods. The war in Iran that he foolishly launched in late February—and which has caused energy prices to explode—would perhaps take a little longer to wind down, but its end would almost certainly benefit the GOP’s increasingly slim odds this fall.

But that is not what Trump is doing. Instead, he’s posting stuff like this:

There is tough competition, but surely this is one of Trump’s most ridiculous social media posts, ever. Even many of his most loyal supporters would probably blanch at his description of himself as the nation’s preeminent “Hoax Buster.” And few, if any, Americans are worried that runaway AI will lead to a Terminator-like situation where killer robots rove our streets. But people are worried about artificial intelligence: A recent University of Maryland Program for Public Consultation found that roughly 80 percent of Democrats and Republicans backed a federal agency to regulate AI and mandated safety tests for AI programming. That’s about as bipartisan as any issue gets—and Trump is on the wrong side of it, insisting instead that the only AI guardrail the U.S. needs is a “STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.” (There’s nothing quite like the all-caps bluster of a painfully insecure president to put everyone at ease.)

It’s not just AI, either, where Trump is out of step with the country. He........

© New Republic