Trump’s voice in a new Fannie Mae ad is generated by artificial intelligence, with his permission
NEW YORK with… What sounds like President Donald Trump narrating a new Fannie Mae ad is actually voice-reading text cloned by AI, according to a disclaimer in the video.
The voice in the ad, created with permission from the Trump administration, promises a “brand-new Fannie Mae” and calls the institution “protector of the American dream.” The ad comes as the administration is making a big effort to show voters that it is addressing their concerns about affordability, including in the housing market.
Trump plans to speak about housing when he appears at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where world leaders and business leaders are gathering this week.
This is not the first time a member of the Trump family has used AI to reproduce their voice. First Lady Melania Trump recently tapped AI technology company ElevenLabs to help voice the audio version of her memoir. It’s unclear who cloned President Trump’s voice for the Fannie Mae ad. But ElevenLabs said in an email to The Associated Press on Sunday that the audio of Trump’s voice was not generated by the company.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Last month, Trump promised in a prime-time speech that he would implement “some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history.”
“For generations, homeownership has meant security, independence and stability,” Trump’s digitized voice says in the one-minute ad airing Sunday. “But today, that dream seems out of reach for many Americans, not because they stopped working hard, but because the system stopped working for them.”
Fannie Mae and its peer Freddie Mac, which have been under government control since the Great Recession, buy mortgages from banks that meet their risk criteria, which helps provide liquidity to the housing market. The two companies underwrite about half of the estimated $13 trillion U.S. home loan market and are the foundation of the U.S. economy.
The announcement states that Fannie Mae will work with the banking industry to approve more potential buyers for mortgage loans.
Trump, Bill Pulte, who heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and others have said they want to sell shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on a major exchange, but no concrete plans have been outlined.
Trump and Pulte also proposed extending the mortgage term from 30 years to 50 years to reduce monthly payments. Trump appeared to backtrack on his proposal after critics said a longer-term loan would reduce people’s ability to build home equity and grow their own wealth.
Trump also said on social media earlier this month that he was ordering the federal government to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds, a move he said would help lower mortgage rates at a time when Americans are worried about housing prices. Trump said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had $200 billion in cash that would be used to make the purchase.
Earlier this month, Trump also said he wanted to prevent large institutional investors from buying homes, saying a ban would make it easier for young families to buy their first home.
Trump’s authorization for the use of AI is interesting given that he has complained about Biden administration aides using autopen to apply the former president’s signature to laws, pardons or executive orders. An automatic overture is a mechanical device used to reproduce a person’s authentic signature.
However, a report released by House Republicans contains no concrete evidence that the automatic override was used to sign Biden’s name without his knowledge.
