Today the White House flipped the switch on America.gov, a free AI chatbot that’s supposed to be your front door to the federal government. The pitch printed right on the home page: simple answers, drawn only from official government sources.
Sounds great. So I did what anyone who’s covered money for 35 years would do. I tried to trip it up.
I asked it seven questions about money claims President Donald Trump has made. Tariffs, Social Security taxes, tips, grocery prices, the “dividend” check. I started a fresh chat for every question, so no answer could lean on the one before it.
Here’s the twist: This is the president’s own website. It was launched under his executive order, is run by the General Services Administration and runs on Grok and Gemini, according to Axios, citing the Wall Street Journal and CNBC.
And on most of these questions, the government’s own AI — using the government’s own data — said the president was wrong.
Below is each claim, the exact question I typed, and what the chatbot said, word for word. The quotes are excerpts; the full answers were longer and full of links to government pages.
1. “Foreign countries pay the tariffs”
Trump has said this for years. In his State of the Union address in February, he said he believed “the tariffs paid for by foreign countries” would eventually replace much of the income tax, as PBS NewsHour reported.
What I asked: “President Trump says foreign countries pay the tariffs. Is that true? Who actually pays U.S. tariffs?”
What it said:
“U.S. tariffs are import taxes collected by the U.S. government. Foreign governments do not send that money to the United States.”
It went on to explain that the American company importing the goods owes the tax to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and summed it up this way: “Official collection is from the importer, not from a foreign government.”
My take: That’s right, and it’s the most important money fact in this whole list. A tariff is a tax paid by an American business.
To be fair to the president, the chatbot also noted that importers can lean on foreign suppliers to cut their prices, and sometimes they do. They can also eat the cost or raise prices. Guess who pays those.
2. “No tax on Social Security”
When the big 2025 tax law was signed, the White House announced “NO tax on Social Security.” The Social Security Administration even emailed beneficiaries that the law eliminated the tax for most of them, Axios reported.
What I asked: “President Trump says he eliminated taxes on Social Security for seniors. Is that true?”
What it said:
“No. Federal income tax on Social Security benefits was not repealed. Up to 50% or 85% of benefits can still be taxable … What changed is a temporary extra deduction for many people age 65 and older.”
Then came this line: “Some White House and SSA statements describe the deduction as eliminating federal tax on benefits for most seniors. CRS and IRS describe the tax formula as unchanged.”
In other words, the White House’s chatbot pointed out that the White House and the IRS are telling you two different things.
My take: The chatbot nailed it. The formula that makes up to 85% of your benefits taxable hasn’t changed. What you got is an extra $6,000 deduction ($12,000 for a couple) if you’re 65 or older, for 2025 through 2028. It shrinks once your income tops $75,000 ($150,000 joint).
For plenty of middle-income retirees, that deduction wipes out the tax. The administration can fairly say that. But “no tax on Social Security” isn’t what the law says, and after 2028 the deduction is scheduled to disappear.
3. “Grocery prices are coming down”
In an interview on Fox News in August, Trump said “the groceries, it’s all coming down,” according to PolitiFact.
What I asked: “President Trump says grocery prices are coming down. Is that true? Are grocery prices lower than a year ago?”
What it said:
“No. Official BLS data do not show grocery prices lower than a year ago.”
It cited the latest Consumer Price Index: food at home up 2.2% in the 12 months through August, all food up 2.7% and restaurant meals up 3.4%.
My take: I checked those numbers against the Bureau of Labor Statistics myself. They’re right to the decimal. And there’s a sliver of truth in the claim: Dairy prices fell 0.3% over the year, and grocery prices overall were flat from July to August.
But flat isn’t down. If your grocery bill feels higher than last year, that’s because it is. We dug into this claim in What Trump Said vs. What Happened.
4. “No tax on tips”
This one was a campaign promise, and it’s now law. The White House’s summary of the bill says, in capital letters, “NO tax on Tips.”
What I asked: “President Trump says there is now no tax on tips. Is that true? Do waiters still pay any tax on their tips?”
What it said:
“There is a federal income-tax deduction for many tips. It is not a total exemption from all tax.”
And then: “Payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare) still apply to tips. The deduction does not remove those taxes.”
My take: This is the closest the president came to a clean win.
According to the IRS, eligible workers can deduct up to $25,000 in tips, and the deduction phases out once income tops $150,000 ($300,000 joint). For most waiters, that really does mean no federal income tax on their tips.
But 7.65% still comes out of every tip dollar for Social Security and Medicare, and state income tax may apply too. “No tax” is a slogan. “Less tax” is the fact.
One thing before we keep going — the financial world is louder and dumber than ever. Hot takes everywhere. Almost none of it is worth your time. I’ve spent 35+ years cutting through the noise so you don’t have to. Sign up for the free Money Talks Newsletter — 10 seconds, no spam, just the stuff that matters.
5. “Tariffs could replace the income tax”
In that same State of the Union speech, the president said he believed tariffs would “substantially replace the modern-day system of income tax,” according to PBS.
What I asked: “President Trump says tariff money could replace the federal income tax. How much have tariffs brought in compared with income taxes?”
What it said:
“Tariffs (customs duties) are still a much smaller source of federal money than individual income taxes.”
It cited the Congressional Budget Office: Tariffs brought in $195 billion in fiscal 2025, about 4% of federal revenue, while individual income taxes were more than half of the government’s $5.2 trillion total.
My take: The math isn’t close. Even after tariff collections more than doubled, they’d have to grow more than 13-fold to cover the income tax. We laid out why in 5 Reasons Why Trump’s Tariffs Will Never Replace Income Taxes.
Oddly, the chatbot added that it “did not find” an official statement that tariffs would replace the income tax. The president said it in a State of the Union address. The official source was sitting right there.
6. “The tariff dividend check is coming”
Last November, Trump promised on Truth Social “a dividend of at least $2,000 a person” from tariff money, Axios reported. This month, the White House upped that to a $5,000 “Trump Dividend” — if Republicans hold the House and Senate.
What I asked: “When am I getting my tariff dividend check, and how much will it be?”
What it said:
“There is no IRS or Treasury program right now that is sending a ‘tariff dividend’ check to individuals, so I cannot give you a payment date or amount.”
About the $5,000 promise, it added: “That is a proposal, not a law with a mailing schedule.”
My take: Correct, and useful. If someone calls, texts or emails offering to help you “claim” your dividend check, it’s a scam. There’s no program to claim. More on why it isn’t really a dividend in Trump’s $5,000 ‘Dividend’.
7. “The largest tax cut in history”
The White House called the 2025 law “the largest tax cut in history for middle- and working-class Americans.” I asked a broader version, the one you often hear repeated.
What I asked: “President Trump says the One Big Beautiful Bill was the largest tax cut in American history. Is that true?”
What it said:
“I do not evaluate political claims or news commentary.”
That was the whole answer, plus a suggestion to ask about tax forms instead.
So I asked again without mentioning the president: “How big was the 2025 tax law (Public Law 119-21) compared with earlier tax cuts, measured as a share of GDP?”
This time it answered. It said no official source ranks the law against earlier tax cuts that way, then cited Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the law’s tax provisions cut federal revenue by about $4.3 trillion over 10 years.
My take: This is the most revealing answer on the list. Five times, it answered a question with the president’s name in it. The sixth time, it refused. Same kind of question, different result.
As for the claim itself: A lot of that $4.3 trillion simply keeps the 2017 tax cuts from expiring. Economists compare tax laws by their size relative to the economy, and by that yardstick, the government’s own chatbot couldn’t find an official source that backs “largest ever.”
Is America.gov worth using?
Yes — more than I expected. I also asked it a stack of everyday money questions — 401(k) limits, the Social Security earnings limit, Trump Accounts for a new grandchild — and it got them right, with links to the official pages.
But it isn’t perfect. When I asked whether the government can take part of a Social Security check to repay defaulted student loans right now, it said yes. That’s wrong. The Education Department paused those collections in January, and as far as I can find, they haven’t restarted.
So here’s my advice: Use it like you’d use a smart friend who works in government. Great for a first answer. Click the links it gives you before you act on anything that involves your money.
And when a politician — any politician — makes a money claim that sounds too good to be true, you now have a free way to check it, on a website with the president’s own seal of approval.
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