New York’s witty — According to a disclaimer in the video, what sounds like President Donald Trump narrating a new Fannie Mae ad is actually an AI-generated voice reading aloud the text.
The ad’s voice, created with permission from the Trump administration, promises an “all-new Fannie Mae” and calls the agency “the custodian of the American Dream.” The ad comes amid a major push by the administration to show voters that it is responsive to their concerns about affordability, including in the housing market.
President Trump is expected to speak about housing this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a gathering of world leaders and business executives.
This isn’t the first time members of the Trump family have used AI to recreate their voices, with First Lady Melania Trump recently hiring AI technology company ElevenLabs to help transcribe an audio version of her memoir. It’s unclear who replicated President Trump’s voice in the Fannie Mae ad. But Eleven Labs said in an email to The Associated Press on Sunday that the audio of President Trump was not generated by the company.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Last month, President Trump promised in a prime-time address that he would roll out “the most aggressive housing reform plan in American history.”
“For generations, homeownership has meant security, independence and stability,” Trump’s digitized audio says in the one-minute ad that aired Sunday. “But today, that dream feels out of reach for too many Americans, not because they have stopped working hard, but because the system no longer works for them.”
Fannie Mae and its partner Freddie Mac, which has been under government control since the Great Recession, buy mortgages from banks that meet risk standards, which helps provide liquidity to the housing market. The companies guarantee about half of the $13 trillion U.S. mortgage market, which is the bedrock of the U.S. economy.
The ad says Fannie Mae is working with the banking industry to approve mortgages for more homebuyers.
President Trump, Bill Pulte, who heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and others have said they want to sell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares on major stock exchanges, but no concrete plans have been decided.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Pulte have also floated the idea of extending 30-year mortgages to 50 years to reduce monthly payments. President Trump appeared to back away from the proposal after critics said long-term loans would reduce Americans’ ability to create housing equity and increase wealth.
President Trump also said on social media earlier this month that he was directing the federal government to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds, which he said would lead to lower mortgage rates at a time when Americans are concerned about home prices. President Trump said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have $200 billion in cash to use for acquisitions.
President Trump also said earlier this month that he wanted to block large institutional investors from buying homes, saying a ban would make it easier for young families to buy their first homes.
President Trump’s approval of the use of AI is interesting given that he complained that Biden administration aides used autopens to apply the former president’s signature to laws, pardons, and executive orders. An autopen is a mechanical device used to reproduce a person’s authentic signature.
But the report released by House Republicans does not include any concrete evidence that an autopen was used to sign Biden’s name without his knowledge.
