By — Associated Press Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-trump-launches-ai-powered-government-website-america-gov Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter WATCH: Trump launches AI-powered government website America.gov Politics Sep 29, 2026 12:11 PM EDT America.gov, what the Trump administration has advertised as "a new front door for the federal government," is now up and running. Watch the event in the video player above. And it looks a lot like other services powered by artificial intelligence. READ MORE: Contradicting Trump, Pope Leo says AI safety concerns not 'fake news' President Donald Trump spoke at a launch event Tuesday for the site, which has been promoted as a way to simplify Americans' access to information and services scattered across a plethora of agency websites. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Enter your email address Subscribe Form error message goes here. Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm. America.gov doesn't say what AI platform it uses to answer questions about government services. And asking the chatbot to explain its systems yielded an answer that it "does not publish the name of a specific AI model" and instead "uses AI to search official government sources and explain them with citations." The website says it's free, has no ads and requires no log in. America.gov refutes many of Trump's pet claims The president said the site is "glamorizing" the federal bureaucracy — but it doesn't agree with him on many key issues. The site's question-and-answer function confirms that Trump's name is in the Epstein files and that Democrat Joe Biden beat him in the 2020 election. It says federal officials did not find widespread fraud in that election, as Trump says constantly. The site confirms that climate change is largely from human greenhouse gas emissions, and there's no evidence whales are harmed by offshore wind turbines. It says Barack Obama's 2009 presidential inauguration attracted a bigger crowd than Trump's in 2017. The site uses Trump's new names for Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico, but that the Defense Department uses the Pentagon — ignoring Trump's attempts to rebrand it the Department of War. Trump says he's the first U.S. president to forgo a salary, but new AI website says otherwise The president said Tuesday "they think no other president has ever served without receiving their salary," adding that "they think Washington did not get a salary, but they're not sure about that." The government's new America.gov chatbot, citing official U.S. documents, debunked the claim. Asked which U.S. presidents declined a salary, the AI-powered bot listed George Washington, Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy as refusing their salaries before Trump. America.gov changes politically thorny answers moments after launch As it initially launched, the site's question-and-answer function answered some political questions truthfully — noting correctly that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election and that former President Barack Obama's 2009 inaugural crowd was bigger than Trump's in 2017. Within moments, however, the site began modifying its answers. After originally reporting that Biden won in 2020, it refused to answer the question subsequently, saying it didn't answer political inquiries. Same went for a question on crowd size at Obama's inauguration versus Trump's first one. The site also offered more muddled answers on other things Trump frequently says that aren't true — like the Strait of Hormuz being fully reopened to commercial traffic. A free press is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy. Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue. Donate now By — Associated Press Associated Press
America.gov, what the Trump administration has advertised as "a new front door for the federal government," is now up and running. Watch the event in the video player above. And it looks a lot like other services powered by artificial intelligence. READ MORE: Contradicting Trump, Pope Leo says AI safety concerns not 'fake news' President Donald Trump spoke at a launch event Tuesday for the site, which has been promoted as a way to simplify Americans' access to information and services scattered across a plethora of agency websites. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Enter your email address Subscribe Form error message goes here. Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm. America.gov doesn't say what AI platform it uses to answer questions about government services. And asking the chatbot to explain its systems yielded an answer that it "does not publish the name of a specific AI model" and instead "uses AI to search official government sources and explain them with citations." The website says it's free, has no ads and requires no log in. America.gov refutes many of Trump's pet claims The president said the site is "glamorizing" the federal bureaucracy — but it doesn't agree with him on many key issues. The site's question-and-answer function confirms that Trump's name is in the Epstein files and that Democrat Joe Biden beat him in the 2020 election. It says federal officials did not find widespread fraud in that election, as Trump says constantly. The site confirms that climate change is largely from human greenhouse gas emissions, and there's no evidence whales are harmed by offshore wind turbines. It says Barack Obama's 2009 presidential inauguration attracted a bigger crowd than Trump's in 2017. The site uses Trump's new names for Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico, but that the Defense Department uses the Pentagon — ignoring Trump's attempts to rebrand it the Department of War. Trump says he's the first U.S. president to forgo a salary, but new AI website says otherwise The president said Tuesday "they think no other president has ever served without receiving their salary," adding that "they think Washington did not get a salary, but they're not sure about that." The government's new America.gov chatbot, citing official U.S. documents, debunked the claim. Asked which U.S. presidents declined a salary, the AI-powered bot listed George Washington, Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy as refusing their salaries before Trump. America.gov changes politically thorny answers moments after launch As it initially launched, the site's question-and-answer function answered some political questions truthfully — noting correctly that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election and that former President Barack Obama's 2009 inaugural crowd was bigger than Trump's in 2017. Within moments, however, the site began modifying its answers. After originally reporting that Biden won in 2020, it refused to answer the question subsequently, saying it didn't answer political inquiries. Same went for a question on crowd size at Obama's inauguration versus Trump's first one. The site also offered more muddled answers on other things Trump frequently says that aren't true — like the Strait of Hormuz being fully reopened to commercial traffic. A free press is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy. Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue. Donate now