Donald Trump spent part of Labor Day weekend posting a wave of AI-generated images and videos on Truth Social, and at least one of them makes a specific financial claim that can be checked against the government’s own numbers — and doesn’t hold up.
Key facts
- $8.9 billion — what the U.S. government paid for a 9.9% stake in Intel (433.3 million shares at $20.47 each) under an August 2025 agreement
- $95.80 — Intel’s closing share price on September 4, 2026
- ~$32.6 billion — the real, unrealized paper gain on that stake, a fraction of the “several hundred billion dollars” claimed in the caption on Trump’s AI-generated image of the chart
- 36 to 43 — the range of AI-generated images and videos different outlets counted in Trump’s Truth Social posts over the Labor Day weekend
- The government has not sold its Intel shares, so the gain exists only on paper, not as cash collected
Timeline
- August 2025 — U.S. government buys 433.3 million Intel shares at $20.47 each, a 9.9% stake costing about $8.9 billion
- August 27, 2026 — Trump signs an executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America” amid a trade dispute with Canada
- September 4, 2026 — Intel closes at $95.80 a share
- September 6-7, 2026 (Labor Day weekend) — Trump posts dozens of AI-generated images and videos on Truth Social, including a chart claiming a “several hundred billion dollar” gain from the Intel stake
The Intel chart’s real numbers
The image shows a stock chart tracking Intel’s share price climbing from roughly $20 to $95. Its caption is paraphrased here rather than quoted directly, because outlets that reported on it don’t all describe its precise wording the same way; what’s consistent across those reports is that it claimed Trump personally made an enormous sum — several hundred billion dollars — for the United States. The real transaction behind that chart is public record: under an August 2025 agreement, the U.S. government bought 433.3 million Intel shares at $20.47 each, a 9.9% stake costing about $8.9 billion. Intel closed at $95.80 on September 4, 2026. Multiply those numbers out and the stake is worth roughly $41.5 billion — a paper gain of about $32.6 billion over the purchase price. That’s a real and sizable gain, but it’s a small fraction of what the caption claimed, and because the government has not sold the shares, none of it has actually been collected. It’s an unrealized gain on paper, not money in hand.
A weekend of AI-generated images and videos
The Intel chart was just one piece of a much larger spree. Trump shared dozens of AI-generated images and videos over Sunday, September 6, and into Labor Day, and most of them had nothing to do with stock prices at all — they ranged into military fantasy, historical cosplay, a territorial claim and a fabricated celebrity endorsement. News outlets don’t agree on exactly how many posts went out or over how long. One outlet reported “at least 36 posts… In a span of two hours”; another headlined it a “37-Post Spree”; and a third counted “43 posts across five hours,” citing a Bluesky user’s tally, with one account describing more than 10 hours of posting activity across the full day. So no single number here is settled. What is clear is the range of subjects.
Military and historical fantasies
The official White House X account posted an AI video showing Trump as the DC Comics superhero Green Lantern, wielding a glowing power ring over imagery of a border wall, factories and military equipment, reciting the character’s oath. That post is worth separating from the rest: it came from the White House’s institutional account, not from Trump’s personal Truth Social feed, which carried the other images described here.
Trump’s own posts included a series showing him commanding an army of red-eyed robotic soldiers, captioned with lines like “give them nightmares” and “they will never sleep again.” Others placed him alongside George Washington — one showing the two on horseback, another captioned “President Washington visits President Trump” and depicting Washington seated in the Oval Office. A separate image showed Trump in a general’s uniform next to a graphic declaring “The Moon Is Ours.” No policy explanation accompanied it, and the U.S. has made no formal claim to the Moon — international treaty bars any country from doing so unilaterally.
Renaming New Mexico “New America”
Trump also posted a graphic relabeling New Mexico as “New America” — his own social-media post, not a legal document. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham rejected the idea outright, saying the state’s name “isn’t up for debate — it’s been ours since before the United States existed.” A president cannot unilaterally rename a state, and this never went beyond a proposal.
A fake claim about an executive order
A separate, false claim spread online around the same time: that Trump had actually signed an executive order renaming New Mexico. He hadn’t — no such order exists in the Federal Register or White House records. That false claim likely gained traction because Trump really had signed an executive order days earlier, on August 27, 2026, renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America” amid a trade dispute with Canada — a genuine, separate action that made the fake New Mexico order sound plausible.
A fabricated De Niro endorsement
One more image used a real person’s face to make a fake statement: a picture of actor Robert De Niro holding up a shirt endorsing Trump as president, captioned by Trump, “Even this jerk is beginning to get it.” It’s fabricated. De Niro has a long public record of criticizing Trump, calling him a “tyrant,” and there’s no indication he made any such statement or endorsement.
Political fallout
The volume of posts drew mockery and some political criticism, including renewed calls to invoke the 25th Amendment. Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger publicly questioned Trump’s mental fitness, asking, “Are we watching a real-time mental health crisis with Trump?” and Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree called the posts “truly unhinged behavior,” adding, “None of this is normal or okay.” No such process has actually been initiated. Succeeding over a president’s objection would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress — the 25th Amendment’s own threshold for removal, not an outside assessment.
Why it matters
The more durable story here isn’t the political back-and-forth; it’s a reminder that a convincing chart with real-looking numbers can still be wrong. The Intel stake is genuine, the share-price jump is genuine, and the gain is real — just far smaller than the caption claimed, and not yet a dollar the government can spend.