Skip to main content

Hillary Clinton's campaign builds a bot that sends you Donald Trump quotes

Hillary Clinton's campaign builds a bot that sends you Donald Trump quotes

Share this story

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images

Donald Trump keeps denying that he said things that he categorically did say, so to remind voters of the Republican nominee's opinions, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has built a bot that will text you some of his choice quotes. People who sign up to Text Trump will receive messages in the candidate's typically bullish style, asking them to question it on topics like the economy, Hillary Clinton, or Trump's favorite topic, China. When it responds with quotes from the man himself, users can type "Source," receiving video or text evidence that Trump said those things.

The bot is the work of official Clinton campaign group, Hillary For America, and develops on Literally Trump — a site built by the same team that surfaces Trump quotes in response to issues mentioned during the presidential debates. While the idea of a Trump bot isn't entirely new, Text Trump shows how quick Clinton's official team has been to trendy new methods of voter engagement, producing a bot at the same time as companies are rolling out their own artificial assistants.

In the last month alone, HFA has also produced a Pokémon Go-aping game designed to influence swing states, and an online fact-checking tool that worked overtime during the debates themselves. As it launched Text Trump this week, the campaign also released its I Will Vote bot, an assistant for Facebook Messenger that checks whether you're registered to vote, and helps you sign up if you're not yet on the books.