Trump Media Is Testing an AI Search Engine Powered by Perplexity

President Donald Trump's media company, Trump Media, is beta-testing a new AI search feature, Truth Search AI, on the Truth Social platform. The Florida-based company announced the news on Wednesday in a press release.

Trump Media and Technology Group is perhaps best known for its social-media program Truth Social. The company is separate from the New York-based Trump Organization.

"We're proud to partner with Perplexity to launch our public Beta testing of Truth Social AI, which will make Truth Social an even more vital element in the Patriot Economy," Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said in the statement. "We plan to robustly refine and expand our search function based on user feedback as we implement a wide range of additional enhancements to the platform."

Truth Search AI is now available on the Web version of Truth Social and will begin public beta testing on the Truth Social iOS and Android apps at an unnamed future date.

Representatives for Trump Media and Perplexity didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

In today's divided political landscape, one immediate concern is that a search engine from a conservative president's media company will select only search results that favor conservative opinions.

UAE state-owned newspaper The National conducted searches using the new product and reported that the AI-generated answers, perhaps unsurprisingly, source conservative-leaning media outlets.

But 404Media was able to get some possibly surprising results. When reporters asked how the American economy is doing, the new search engine said it was "currently facing significant headwinds, with signs of slowdown."

The media outlet pressed further, asking if the president's international tariffs are to blame.

"Recent tariff increases in the United States have generally had a negative effect on economic growth and employment, raising costs for businesses and consumers while providing only limited benefits to some manufacturing sectors," Truth Search AI replied.

Read more: What Is Perplexity? Here's Everything You Need to Know About This AI Chatbot

San Francisco-based Perplexity was founded in 2022. As CNET noted in a review, it calls itself the world's first "answer engine," and instead of showing a list of links, it pulls info directly from the sources and summarizes that information.

The company has made headlines for how it acquires its content. In June, the BBC threatened to sue Perplexity for unauthorized use of its content, alleging the artificial intelligence company reproduced BBC material "verbatim."

At the time, Perplexity gave a statement to the Financial Times calling the BBC's claims "manipulative and opportunistic" and that the broadcasting giant fundamentally doesn't understand how the technology, internet or IP law works. Perplexity also alleged that the threat of litigation shows "how far the BBC is willing to go to preserve Google's illegal monopoly for its own self-interest."

As 404Media notes, Forbes, the New York Times, New York Post and the Dow Jones have all accused Perplexity of plagiarism, and News Corp's Dow Jones & Co., which publishes the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post sued Perplexity in 2024 for copyright infringement.