I wish this had been my idea, but it was my brilliant sister who–on a whim–asked Chatgpt what Thomas Jefferson might say to Donald Trump.
This was the response:
If Thomas Jefferson were to speak to Donald Trump, the conversation would likely reflect Jefferson’s Enlightenment-era values—particularly around democracy, individual rights, limited government, and civic virtue. Here’s a speculative interpretation of what Jefferson might say, based on his writings and beliefs:
“Mr. Trump, I have always believed that government exists to serve the people, not to enrich those in power. Our republic depends on an informed citizenry, a free press, and leaders who value the public good over personal gain.
While strong leadership can be necessary, it must be tempered by respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, and the separation of powers. These are not mere formalities—they are safeguards against tyranny.
Beware the temptation to sow division for political gain. A nation cannot be both ignorant and free. True greatness lies not in spectacle, but in the quiet, steady work of preserving liberty and justice for all.”
The AI then asked her if she would prefer a more confrontational, supportive or humorous version, or one tailored to a specific topic like free speech or executive power. (That question suggested endless possibilities. The fact that she didn’t pursue them shouldn’t keep the rest of us from playing with our own AIs…)
After she received the response to her question about Thomas Jefferson, she decided to ask what Jesus might say to Trump. Once again, AI responded by mining the relevant documentation–in this case, the Gospels.
That’s a powerful and complex question, and the answer depends on how one interprets Jesus’ teachings and values. Based on the messages in the Gospels—love, humility, justice, mercy, repentance, and truth—here’s a thoughtful, nonpartisan imagining of what Jesus might say to Donald Trump (or any political leader):
1. On Power and Leadership:
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)
Jesus might challenge Trump to reflect on whether his leadership serves the vulnerable and promotes justice and peace.
2. On Truth and Integrity:
“Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from evil.” (Matthew 5:37)
Jesus often called out hypocrisy and might urge Trump to speak truthfully and act with consistency.
3. On Wealth and Responsibility:
“To whom much is given, much will be required.” (Luke 12:48)
Jesus might challenge Trump on how he uses his wealth and influence for the common good.
4. On Enemies and Rhetoric:
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)
Jesus might caution against divisive language and encourage reconciliation and empathy.
5. On Repentance and Grace:
Jesus welcomed sinners and called them to repentance. He might say to Trump—as he would to anyone—“Come, follow me.” (Matthew 4:19), offering grace but also calling for transformation.
Would you like a version written more like a direct conversation or modern interpretation?
When my sister shared this exercise, I asked my own Chatgpt what Ronald Reagan would say to Trump.
While we can only speculate, a thoughtful, historically grounded analysis of what Ronald Reagan might say to Donald Trump would likely reflect stark contrasts in style, tone, and certain core values—especially regarding democratic norms, civility, and America’s global role. Here’s a reasoned approximation of what Reagan might express, based on his public speeches, writings, and actions.
1. On Civility and American Ideals:
“Mr. Trump, words matter. The presidency is not only a position of power, but a moral pulpit. We must be a shining city on a hill—not a fortress of grievance and division. Insulting adversaries, attacking the press, and stoking anger may win applause, but it dims the light of that city.”
Context: Reagan often emphasized optimism, unity, and a dignified tone—even when disagreeing. He viewed America as a beacon of hope and saw the president as a steward of national character.
2. On Immigration and American Identity:
“You speak of immigrants as threats, but I saw them as assets to the American experiment. We are a nation of immigrants. We weaken our greatness when we shut the golden door to those yearning to be free.”
Context: Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which granted legal status to nearly 3 million undocumented immigrants. He spoke of immigrants with admiration, not suspicion.
3. On NATO and Global Alliances:
“You undermine alliances I spent a presidency building. America leads not by bullying partners or admiring strongmen, but by championing freedom and standing firm with our allies.”
Context: Reagan was staunchly pro-NATO and took a hard line against authoritarian regimes, particularly the Soviet Union. Trump’s praise of autocrats and criticism of NATO would likely alarm him.
4. On Conservatism and Responsibility:
“Conservatism is not chaos. It is a belief in limited government, personal responsibility, and respect for institutions. When we tear down the guardrails of democracy, we no longer conserve—we destroy.”
Context: Reagan valued conservative principles but respected democratic processes. He would likely object to Trump’s rejection of election results and attacks on the judiciary.
5. On Political Legacy:
“We do not inherit America’s greatness from one election to the next—we preserve it by upholding the values that bind us: liberty, respect, and the rule of law. History will judge not only what we build, but what we choose not to break.”
Context: Reagan was deeply concerned with legacy, often invoking America’s historical promise. He might warn Trump that personal power is fleeting—but democratic norms endure if preserved.
AI just confirmed it: Trump and the MAGA cult dishonor America, Christianity, and the once-Grand Old Party.
While this dive into an imagined world is entertaining, it is an impossibility…. Trump cannot read!
Wow
Wow. WWJ,TJ,&RR do? Brilliant!
Would Jefferson – or any rational or sane President – have called out the National Guard dressed in full “battle rattle” to suppress peaceful demonstrations? Probably not – even if he HAD a NG.
To sum up: Everything Trump touches or has ever touched turns to shit and dies. He is responsible, along with the 160 million dolts who voted for him or stayed home, for the destruction of our institutions.
Friends tell me they are moving to Portugal ASAP. The American ex-Pat community there is large and everyone is learning Portugese (sic) and English.
And what would Trump say in response? He’d call it fake news, say he’s a loser, and think up some ‘clever’ put-down nickname to call him. Then he would drone on as long as he could about stolen elections, windmills, water pressure, and any number of inane lies from his greatest hits.
If anyone is (brain)dead and has been replaced by an android, it’s Trump.
It’s really very simple, Trump does not care about his family, America, Americans, democracy, the Constitution, really, anything but himself. Unfortunately, we have 3 and 1/2 more years for him to destroy as much as he can.
Trump would call Jesus “Woke,” and tell him to “Stuff it!”
RR spoke well, probably scripted, and was, himself a traitor.
Trump wants to be the dictator he is acting like, and does not give a whit for a damn about anything else. He has, reportedly, said that the LA protestors are being “paid” to protest. And, I’ll bet, the followers of Faux News, Newsmax, and so on, believe the crap he spits out!
AI’s wisdom depends in the literature it is trained on. Try doing this on the writing of Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler.
Vernon, in regard to yesterday’s response, you are right about Vance. He has no idea about the world beyond the image of it living in his skull. Todd, is right, that Trump is working towards martial law , and no mid-term elections. I believe that that is exactly where he is headed. Remember the infamous line about “You won’t have to worry about voting anymore.”
Mitch, I DO remember that line; a seeming throwaway at the time. When the demonstrations continue he will declare martial law and suspend the mid-term election … unless something very dramatic happens in the meantime.
I still think the L. A. situation is the spark that has started the civil war. If they do come after Newsome, et. al., the game is in the hat. If I believed in God, it would be time to invoke his help.
If The President is not careful, the military will turn against him before executing force against our own innocent and unarmed citizens. Every citizen soldier knows they are under command of a Commander in Chief who is a three time deferment from military draft due to a lie manipulated by his own father.
Sad start to a Monday morning…going to be a long week.
Thank you though, Sheila, for sharing your sister’s results with AI
Trump teaches the country that certain Americans, those who agree with him, have a right to control others that is more powerful than the rights of man as stated in our Bill of Rights, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted by the National Assembly in August 1789, which proclaimed fundamental rights of man and citizen, including natural rights like liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. It also established equality before the law and emphasized the nation’s sovereignty. Heck, even the Magna Carta informed those documents.
Trump hates and teaches hate in direct opposition to the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth even.
I’m thinking that I now understand why Trump went begging in Qatar. They not only gave him a present of the ultimate shiny object, but it also came with an effective dose of teaching Jihad against the people of his country and other countries, as happens often in the Middle East.
We are starting to see evidence of Trump’s holy war against what works best for the most people.
‘Woke. ‘
I!HO, the key difference between the Thomas.Jefferson and the Jesus conversations is that Jefferson would lose his audience at the end of his first paragraph, while Jesus would lose him after his first sentence.
Reagan was an actor. Those charming, uplifting words were the script. He delivered a good performance nearly every time he spoke. When I think of Reagan, I go back to the late forties and early fifties. Government was consumed by the hunt for Commies. Everybody knows about Joe McCarthy, but few people ever speak about the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC for short).The star on that committee was Richard Nixon. Reagan gave the committee the name of an organization whose members were easily identified. Suddenly the Old Ranger was too old to handle the forty mule team Boraxo commercials, so Ron takes over. That’s in addition to his work as the host of the General Electric Theater. Gee whiz, ma, who’s thunk a guy could get so lucky?🤔
While I’m sure chatgpt is a great tool, I’m have no intention of using it. I prefer to make my own mistakes.
Peggy -kudos for your last paragraph. When we lose the ability to think and express for ourselves, for better or worse, at least we are still human.
AI just processes the information that humans give it. Our brains just process the information our senses give us. Different systems to achieve the same result. AI has the advantage of working with a bigger data base. Our brains still have the advantage of certain higher level thinking skills…so far. Maybe someone will ask AI what it thinks of that statement.
Better yet, ask AI how we get out of this mess!
Thanks Lester. I’ve already shown how good I am at making a mistake. I tried to say “who’da thunk” three times. I just couldn’t see well enough to know it didn’t stick.
You don’t have to have a conversation with AI chat, if you like to read, you can see the actual words that were used in times of distress.
Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 He said to him: “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.”
(Matthew 22)
mejs.audio-player
00:00
The good Samaritan bringing an injured man to an inn
“You Must Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”
“The second [commandment] is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’”—MATT. 22:39.
HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND?
Who really is our neighbor?
Why do you believe that we can and should display love for our neighbor?
What are some aspects of love that are covered at 1 Corinthians 13:4-8?
1, 2. (a) What did Jesus say was the second greatest commandment of the Law? (b) What questions will we now consider?
TO TEST Jesus, a Pharisee once asked him: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” As noted in the preceding article, Jesus replied that “the greatest and first commandment” is: “You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.” Jesus added: “The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’”—Matt. 22:34-39.
2 Jesus said that we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Thus, we do well to ask: Who really is our neighbor? How can we show neighbor love?
WHO REALLY IS OUR NEIGHBOR?
3, 4. (a) With what illustration did Jesus answer the question: “Who really is my neighbor”? (b) How did the Samaritan help the man who had been robbed, beaten, and left half-dead? (See opening image.)
3 We may think of a neighbor as a person living nearby who is a close and helpful friend. (Prov. 27:10) But consider what Jesus said when a certain self-righteous man asked him: “Who really is my neighbor?” In response, Jesus gave the illustration of the neighborly Samaritan. (Read Luke 10:29-37.) We might expect that an Israelite priest and a Levite would act like good neighbors when they saw a man who had been robbed, beaten, and left half-dead. However, they passed him by without doing anything for him. The man was helped by a Samaritan—an individual who belonged to a people who respected the Mosaic Law but for whom the Jews had contempt.—John 4:9.
4 In an effort to help with the healing process, the neighborly Samaritan poured oil and wine on the injured man’s wounds. The two denarii left with the innkeeper for the man’s care amounted to about two days’ wages. (Matt. 20:2) So it is easy to see who proved to be the real neighbor of the wounded man. Jesus’ illustration surely teaches us to show compassion and love for our neighbor.
Jehovah’s Witnesses providing disaster relief in Japan and Canada
Jehovah’s servants are quick to show neighbor love (See paragraph 5)
5. How did Jehovah’s servants show neighbor love during a recent natural disaster?
5 It is often difficult to find compassionate people like the neighborly Samaritan. Especially is this so in these critical “last days” when multitudes have no natural affection, are fierce, and lack a love of goodness. (2 Tim. 3:1-3) For instance, critical situations may develop during a natural disaster. Consider what happened when Hurricane Sandy struck New York City late in October 2012. In one hard-hit section of the city, looters preyed on residents who were already suffering because of a lack of electricity, heat, and other necessities. In the same area, Jehovah’s Witnesses organized a program that enabled them to help one another as well as others. Christians do such things because they love their neighbor. What are some other ways to display neighbor love?
HOW WE CAN SHOW NEIGHBOR LOVE
6. How is our preaching work related to being neighborly?
6 Offer people spiritual help. We do this by endeavoring to direct their attention to heartening “comfort from the Scriptures.” (Rom. 15:4) Unquestionably, we are being neighborly when we share Bible truth with others in our preaching activity. (Matt. 24:14) How privileged we are to proclaim the Kingdom message from “the God who gives hope”!—Rom. 15:13.
7. What is the Golden Rule, and how are we blessed for following it?
7 Follow the Golden Rule. This rule is expressed in these words spoken by Jesus during his Sermon on the Mount: “All things . . . that you want men to do to you, you also must do to them. This, in fact, is what the Law and the Prophets mean.” (Matt. 7:12) When we treat others as Jesus counseled, we act in harmony with the spirit behind “the Law” (Genesis through Deuteronomy) and “the Prophets” (the prophetic books of the Hebrew Scriptures). From such writings it is clear that God blesses those who show love for others. Through Isaiah, for instance, Jehovah said: “Uphold justice, and do what is righteous . . . Happy is the man who does this.” (Isa. 56:1, 2) We are indeed blessed because we act in a loving and righteous manner toward our neighbor.
8. Why should we love our enemies, and what may happen if we do so?
‘Love your enemies.’ “You heard that it was said: ‘You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’” said Jesus. “However, I say to you: Continue to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you, so that you may prove yourselves sons of your Father who is in the heavens.” (Matthew 5:43-45) The apostle Paul made a similar point when he wrote: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.” (Romans 12:20; Proverbs 25:21) According to the Mosaic Law, a person was to help an enemy to free his animal that had fallen under its load. (Exodus 23:5)
Jesus said: “You heard that it was said: ‘You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ However, I say to you: Continue to love your enemies and to pray for those persecuting you; that you may prove yourselves sons of your Father who is in the heavens, since he makes his sun rise upon wicked people and good and makes it rain upon righteous people and unrighteous. For if you love those loving you, what reward do you have? are not also the tax collectors doing the same thing? And if you greet your brothers only, what extraordinary thing are you doing? Are not also the people of the nations doing the same thing? You must accordingly be complete, as your heavenly Father is complete.” (1st John 4:8; Matthew. 5:43-48.)
“MAN OF LAWLESSNESS,”
An expression used by the apostle Paul at 2nd Thessalonians 2:2, 3 in warning of the great anti-Christian apostasy. The Greek word for “apostasy” here used, a·po·sta·siʹa, denotes more than a mere falling away, an indifferent sliding back. It means a defection, a revolt, a planned, deliberate rebellion. In ancient papyrus documents a·po·sta·siʹa was used politically of rebels.
“Be on the watch for the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew. 7:15)
Thanks Lester. I’ve already shown how good I am at making a mistake. I tried to say “who’da thunk” three times. I just couldn’t see well enough to know it didn’t stick. Ma wouldn’t be very happy with me.
Peggy,
So…if Ma were AI, what would s/he say? WITHC….”who in the H cares?”
I am reading an interesting book by Jeffrey Deaver, one of his Lincoln Rhyme series, “The Steel Kiss” which contains much well researched scientific information and basic computerization of all our lives at this time. I copies some quotes which put my jumbled, uneducated thoughts in plain words; I will say that it gets down the simple fact of things which Sharon Miller wrote in her first sentence today.
“Manufacturers are increasingly marketing products to take over people’s lives.” This statement can go back to the 1960s when some well informed person or persons warned us of the “cashless/checkless future when banks would control our financial lives”…which is the foundation of our lives whether how much or how little cash you may have. Credit and Debit cards are prime examples.
The increasing marketing of products is further explained in the book as, “Called the Internet of Things, or Iot. Computer controls that allow consumers to access them remotely. Now the proliferation of these “embedded devices” containing computer circuitry is increasing exponentially. All functions of smart appliances are managed by the controller. There are safeguards built in. Network keys, encription, passcodes and the latest is confirmation numbers.”
AI is no more and no less that all other information sites we have access to. AI included input is controlled by the manufacturer, operated by high salaried employees with the same possibility of garbage in/garbage out as other information providers.
Or as Sharon Miller said, “AI just processes the information that humans give it.” They come with no guarantee from manufacturers claiming they want to make people’s live easier when they just want to line their pockets.
Why on God’s green earth would AI or Thomas Jefferson want to speak with Donald Trump?
Imaginative, creative, and, revealing… As with Peggy and Lester, and, no doubt, you too, Sheila, we prefer making our own mistakes, drawing from our own sources and brain power. I’m not inclined to take up A.I. given my respect for those who do their jobs with care, with responsibility, as their work is ‘taken’ by A.I. forces to spit back at those that seeks its ‘assistance,’ and, by the way, also don’t themselves seek ‘an easy path’ that could lead readers astray… The U.K. Judiciary appears to be casting its lot with actual lawyers, doing the legal work they are expected (and paid) to do. A.I. will not be accepted at the Old Bailey!
A.I. may be great at medical innovation, and drawing critical inferences from the rapid analysis of data, and so on…. but let’s not lose our perspective on where it has, shall we say, its limits. I note, for example, in a recent New Yorker, the following letter, with the heading “Digital Humanities:” The writer finds much to admire in a prognosis for the humanities in the A.I. age by a recent columnist, but says that, the writer, an outstanding scholar, “seems curiously untroubled by two integral features of large language models: their propensity to “hallucinate” (that is, to simply make things up) and their general failure to document the sources they draw upon in formulating responses. A scholar who compulsively confabulates and refuses to cite sources would not make it far in academia. Does the scholar believe tht we should turn the task of producing scholarship in the humanities over to software that is quite literally indifferent to the truth?”
Late additiion
I have to thank Peggy for bringing up Reagan’s anti-communist (deny a livelihood to anyone signing a petition supporting labor civil rights if it was circulated by a “commie”)
We also need to remember his initiating the turning of the courts to the hard right, his games and cruelty to the air traffic controllers (banned for life) — and maybe his cult followers that needed a “Reagan” anything in every county or every state, including National Airport, simply because FDR had so many.
Sorry, Reagan made some noteworthy statements – some good and some not so good (to a heckler – not “wait your turn”, but “I paid for this microphone”, pre-shadowing the Citizens United attitude that money buys speech.)
Otherwise a fun exercise in AI