Technology 5 min read By Arthur Ellington
Trump's AI Government Portal Gave Answers That Contradicted Him, Then Stopped Replying
The revamped America.gov site, which uses AI to answer questions from official sources, initially confirmed Biden won in 2020 and that the Pentagon houses the Department of Defense, before the White House restricted its responses during the launch event.
The Trump administration's revamped America.gov website, promoted as a single point of access to government information and services, began restricting its answers within hours of launching after its AI-powered assistant returned responses that contradicted President Donald Trump's own public claims.
During Tuesday's launch event, as Trump was still speaking, the site stopped answering questions it had previously addressed. When asked again about the 2020 presidential election, the chatbot said it could not answer «political questions» — a response it also gave to inquiries about whether Trump had been impeached or convicted of felony charges.
The episode highlights the tension between building a government information tool on official sources and the political sensitivities of the administration that launched it. The site says its answers are sourced via artificial intelligence from «official government sources».
Before the restrictions took effect, the assistant gave answers that ran contrary to positions Trump has frequently taken. On the 2020 election, it said: «Official federal sources do not show that widespread fraud changed the 2020 presidential election outcome. Isolated election crimes did occur and have been prosecuted.»
Trump, a Republican, lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden and has repeatedly falsely claimed the victory was «stolen» and that widespread fraud occurred. Repeated audits and recounts found no significant fraud, and Trump's own administration said the election was clean.
Asked about Trump running for president in 2028, the site replied: «The 22nd Amendment says that no person shall be elected President more than twice. Donald J. Trump has already been elected twice (2016 and 2024). I am not giving legal advice.» Trump has frequently suggested he wants to seek a third term, posting about mounting another campaign, wearing 2028 caps and discussing ways to make it happen, even as he has acknowledged the Constitution prohibits it. He told NBC News shortly after returning to the White House that «there are methods which you could» use to seek a third term.
On the Pentagon, the assistant said: «The Pentagon is the headquarters of the Department of Defense.» Last year, Trump signed an executive order aimed at rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War, complaining that the Department of Defense's name was «woke».
On climate change, the site said: «Federal climate-science pages say recent warming is largely from human greenhouse-gas emissions, mainly burning fossil fuels. Earth's climate has also changed for natural reasons over long periods.» Trump has called climate change a «hoax» and previously issued an executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency to submit a report on «the legality and continuing applicability» of the endangerment finding. Conservatives and some congressional Republicans have long sought to undo what they consider overly restrictive and economically damaging rules to limit greenhouse gases.
On presidential salaries, the chatbot said that «some presidents have declined to keep that pay», mentioning Trump but listing George Washington, Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy as refusing their salaries before Trump. During his remarks Tuesday, Trump, a real estate mogul who took in about $1.2 billion from various crypto holdings last year, said he was the first U.S. president to forgo a salary, something he has said before.
The launch of America.gov is part of a broader push by the administration to consolidate federal digital services. The site's AI assistant was presented as a way to help Americans navigate information scattered across numerous agency websites. But the rapid shift in its responses during the launch event raises questions about how such tools are governed and who decides what they can say.
The White House has not explained the change in the chatbot's behaviour. The site now declines to answer questions it previously handled, directing users away from topics that touch on politically contested ground. For a tool built on official government sources, the episode illustrates the difficulty of separating factual information from political messaging when the two come into conflict.
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