Progressive political analyst David Pakman picked apart a ratings boast President Donald Trump made at a White House event meant to focus on AI.
In a Wednesday episode of "The David Pakman Show," the host reviewed footage of Trump appearing alongside tech executives to announce a voluntary safety accord signed by major AI companies. When a reporter asked whether the agreement was binding, Trump said, "I think it's morally binding," and then the conversation veered away from AI entirely.
Trump instead bragged about the audience for the recent Republican midterm convention.
"We had a convention a couple of weeks ago that a lot of you said, oh, it's a midterm. It's never been done before. It's going to be a failure," Trump said. "And they put it against the NFL, and we had 107 million views, and the NFL had 25 million views."
Pakman said the president was mixing two very different numbers.
"Now, let me explain to you what Trump's doing. This is a classic. He's comparing completely different metrics," Pakman said. "The Republican midterm convention had roughly three million TV viewers, according to Nielsen."
Trump's figure lumped together every platform the event appeared on, Pakman explained.
"Trump's larger number is across all platforms, including the internet, as well as clips and live stream," Pakman said. "All of it together is 107 million views, which is a fraction of what my show gets in a month."
He added, "It's not even that impressive."
Pakman then laid out the comparison he said actually mattered. He said that the NFL drew 20 million to 25 million television viewers while the convention drew about three million. He called that an "apples to apples" measure.
He also pointed out that Trump deflected questions about AI to push his new name for it, superintelligence.
"The questions are about substance, and every single stupid answer is about aesthetics or ratings or vibes or branding or something," Pakman said. "Changing the name from AI to [superintelligence] doesn't make any of his policies any smarter."