On Monday, President Trump used Truth Social to scold The Wall Street Journal for still saying artificial intelligence instead of SI, short for Super Intelligence. Then he promised the government would be “officially BANNING the term” in “all relevant documents, and everything else.” So yes, Trump bans AI. Not the robots or the data centers, just the two letters. I respect it a little, because I also blame the label when something I bought turns out to be bad.
Aaron Rupar had the full statement up within the hour, and the quote tweets piled on fast. The first good one treated the whole thing as a romance.
Free Speech, Allegedly
The first wave went straight for the irony. Plenty of people remembered the speeches about cancel culture and noticed that banning a word is, technically, cancelling it. @covie_93 got it down to five words, and Brian Krassenstein ended his history lesson with a correction so petty I want it on a pillow.
Garry Kasparov skipped the punchline and quoted 1984, which is the chess grandmaster version of a subtweet. Others were less literary about it, and Brian Stelter just sounded tired.
Calling It AI Anyway
Then came the spite, which is my home address. Nothing makes a grown adult commit to a word like being told they cannot say it. @CaptAmericaWife admitted she still calls X Twitter and always will, which is exactly how I talk about every candy bar that got a new name since 2009. Another reply just typed artificial intelligence over and over, like a kid writing lines on a chalkboard out of revenge.
One reply reached for Mean Girls, because the internet has one answer to a forced rebrand, and it involves fetch. A couple of others skipped the jokes entirely and went for name-calling, which, to be fair, is also a kind of renaming.
The Trump AI Ban Budget
The sharpest replies asked what the Trump AI ban actually fixes. Wendy Patterson offered a deal: lower beef prices and she will say SI. Someone else promised it should bring down gas prices any minute now. I would also say SI for cheaper ground beef. I do not have principles, I have taco night.
What made this one different is that the eye rolls came from both directions. The Daily Caller asked about foreign wars instead, and Matt Walsh called it “the weirdest political hill to die on.” One more reply dragged the ballroom back in, because no story is finished until it gets a callback.
So now I have to ask you: if a word can be banned by post, which one are you getting rid of first at your house? I am starting with “quick,” as in “quick question,” which has never once been quick.
Feeling a little renamed and unsettled? Start the recovery with Trump Gold Phone Memes: The T1 Rollout Got Weird, follow it with I’m Finding These Trump Ballroom Memes Keep Getting Weirder By The Hour, and finish on 24 AI Memes For “Robots Are Coming” Laughs to remember what we all called it last week.
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Thunder Dungeon Staff is the byline for galleries our team makes together, led by co-founders Roy R. and Phil M. We've been curating internet humor since 2012: finding the funniest memes, pictures and posts, crediting creators wherever we can, and adding our own take. Roy or Phil reviews every post before it goes live.
