Have the robots already taken over? That’s what House Democrats on two committees are trying to find out, with their letter asking President Trump about his use of Grok, the AI from Elon Musk’s X.
Representatives Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia, respectively the ranking members of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, wrote a letter to the President asserting that any AI “prompts” input by the President or White House staff, “as well as any AI-generated outputs in response to your prompts… legally must be preserved for posterity.”
Raskin and Garcia’s letter mentions that in December 2025, Trump, under the guidance of Elon Musk, reportedly asked Grok to “opine on how Venezuelans would respond to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.” Grok said that “many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall.” Trump ordered the capture of Maduro the following month. Raskin and Garcia seem to be suggesting that Trump might not have done so without consulting the AI oracle. Sure…
The congressmen seem particularly fixated on Grok. “If the American President is relying on the policy advice of a Musk-designed Hitler-friendly chatbot with a predilection for child pornography in order to carry out his official duties, Americans have a right to know,” reads one line in the letter which one of their staffers is probably feeling very smug about writing.
The most common criticism of AI guidance is that bots tend to be too deferential to the human user, reaffirming whatever the human appears to feel strongly about. It’s easy to see why Democrats are concerned about Trump seeking validation from AI, as opposed to the rigorous pushback he’s accustomed to getting from his human staffers in his second term.
On our radar
FAREWELL FOIE GRAS? DC voters will have their say on whether foie gras should be banned in the District on Tuesday. Initiative 86 would also ban the force-feeding of birds and is opposed by chefs including Jose Andrés and Butterworth’s Bart Hutchins.
TIME TO RALLY President Trump has reversed his decision to cancel weekend rallies in Iowa and Kansas, rescheduling them for Sunday instead.
FRIENDS LIKE THESE Representative Haley Stevens will campaign with Abdul El-Sayed at an African-American church in Detroit on Sunday. The event comes after Stevens had criticized her primary opponent El-Sayed for not doing enough to turn out black voters, and after her fiancé declared that he’d vote for Republican Mike Rogers.
Body builders
The human body has been an unexpected theme in Trump’s midterm campaign. In rallies he has complimented the buttocks of Senator John Husted (“like a pile of muscle”) and Nicki Minaj (“one hell of a beautiful ass”).
Reuters reporter Jacob Bogage has now ended up on the wrong side of this new fixation. After asking the President whether he had canceled rallies in Iowa and Kansas due to being sick of travel, Trump told onlookers to “look at this guy – he’s way out of shape.” After giving his reasons for not holding the rallies, the President returned to his quarry: “Put yourself in shape. You look like hell.” He then strode off – presumably in search of a more shapely body.
The White House’s rapid response team’s X account tweeted out the clip of Trump and Bogage with the caption, “@POTUS absolutely DESTROYS Fake News @jacobbogage.” Then they posted some Instagram screenshots of Bogage eating snacks.
The incident yesterday follows Trump’s mauling of the Independent’s Andrew Feinberg on October 20. The President responded to Feinberg’s question about a new whistleblowing hotline by saying, “What’s wrong with you? Are you a sick person? I actually think there’s something wrong with you.” The clip was gleefully shared by the Vice President and the Trump rapid-response team, who wrote, “@POTUS absolutely roasts Mongoloid Moron @AndrewFeinberg for his disgraceful behavior.” Your tax dollars at work.
Down with the kids
J.D. Vance was in Fort Worth, Texas, yesterday for a Fox News town hall with Jesse Watters. He took questions from a number of young conservatives, including a College Republican president who asked why the Republicans deserved two more years given that the Iran conflict broke Trump’s promise of “no new forever wars.” But the clip Trump and Vance’s opponents are dining out on is this remarkable exchange with a young lady from a Turning Point USA chapter, which Cockburn transcribes in full below.
KATE WHITE: My name is Kate, I’m a senior at TCU and I’m also the vice president of our TPUSA chapter there. So a constant message that my generation hears from the right is to get married young, have kids young, have as many kids as possible. And I think what the right doesn’t acknowledge most of the time is how disincentivized we are currently because of the costs of owning a home and the general expenses of raising a family. And so my question is: how does the right and yourself expect us to start families young when you know the average price of a home in America now costs more than $415,000? Which just feels out of reach for us.
J.D. VANCE: Sure, sure. Well, first of all thank you for the question and thanks for the support. I wanna point out that I think that I’ve been asked four or maybe five questions by my count. I’ve only been asked one question about Jon Husted’s ass. And it was by Jesse Watters.
JESSE WATTERS: That’s what people are talking about!
J.D. VANCE: Maybe you should run for Senate on the Democratic side here in Texas, Jesse.
JESSE WATTERS: I’d probably win!
Cockburn is a little perplexed with Vance’s eagerness to roll out his prepped Husted ass line. Was the idea that the young folks in the room would love it, or was it more for Fox’s boomer audience at home? White’s question was a perfect tee-up for the pro-family issues that are Vance’s bread and butter. The mind boggles.
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