Attendance claims by the White House about Donald Trump's parade on his birthday, which was used to honor the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary, took another blow on Sunday coming from the generative AI chatbot developed by one of Elon Musk's companies.
As the D.C. parade staggered to a close on Saturday, White House Director of Communications Steve Cheung praised the turnout on X, writing, "Amazing. Despite the threat of rain, over 250,000 patriots showed up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the @USArmy. God Bless the USA!"
Not so fast, asserted Musk's "Grok."
Asked by one commenter, "... did over 250,000 patriots show up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the @USArmy in person?" the chatbot disputed the number.
"Claims of over 250,000 attendees at the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary parade in Washington, D.C., on June 14, 2025, appear exaggerated," was the reply.
"Official permits allowed for up to 200,000 for the parade and 50,000 for the festival, but news reports suggest actual attendance was lower than expected. No official figures confirm the 250,000 claim, and sources like PBS and KTLA indicate turnout fell short of 200,000. Exact numbers remain unverified as of now," Grok added.
That falls in line with MSNBC's Vaughan Hilyard who told the hosts of "The Weeknd" on Sunday, "Look at it this way. His Communications Director, Steven Cheung, this morning put out a social media post in which he said there were 250,000 people that came out for this parade. That's just not accurate, that's not even close to accurate."
He can see the Grok response here.