President Donald Trump visited the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, on Wednesday to cut the ribbon for its grand opening and deliver a characteristically weird speech. Trump also had the chance to chat with an AI version of Teddy Roosevelt, part of a new exhibit built by Microsoft and the AI lab LemonSlice.
The AI exhibit is called Talk With TR, where visitors can walk up to a control panel and swipe their “compass,” a customized RFID bracelet that tells the museum display their name and age. Visitors are then prompted to press a button to talk with the virtual president.
Trump asked the AI about the Panama Canal, according to videos posted online, a project started by Roosevelt in 1903 and completed in 1914.
“Do you consider the Panama Canal your greatest achievement?” Trump asked.
“Well, tight then, yes,” the AI responded. “The canal stands as one of my proudest battles, no question. But greatness is a strange thing. It isn’t always the biggest or boldest job that matters most. Panama Canal showed what America could achieve if we held steady and acted fast when the world dragged its feet.”
“That said, I measure my greatest work by the lives improved. Parks set aside, food and drugs made safe, the square deal given to all, not just to a few,” the AI responded, adding that as it watched the steam shovels build the canal, it felt it left “a mark that could last.”
President Trump asks AI President Roosevelt…“Do you consider the Panama Canal your greatest achievement?” pic.twitter.com/zvfDCL2sKS
— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) July 1, 2026
Trump told the AI Roosevelt it was, “an honor to be with you today,” and they’re “making a little bit of a tour of some of the fantastic things you’ve done.”
.@POTUS interacts with AI President Theodore Roosevelt at the Theodore Roosevelt Library in North Dakota 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/4ISRo2Tsbj
— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) July 1, 2026
Lina Colucci, the CEO and cofounder of LemonSlice, told Gizmodo that Microsoft hired a professional actor to supply the AI voice for Roosevelt based on the surviving records of the president’s real voice. And the LLM used for the project was trained on speeches, letters, and books from the 26th president.
The AI voice of Teddy refers to visitors by their name, and the age is helpful in tailoring the conversation to kids. “Everything that TR says is designed to, like, be at a PG-13 level, but there’s just the additional kid mode that’s in place as well,” said Colucci.
“You have kids asking TR about his favorite food and his favorite color, which is a lot of fun to listen in on. It’s just like it’s very, very cool to see just every conversation is unique based on whatever the person is interested in, whatever the visitor wants to talk about,” said Colucci.
The exhibit has been in the works for many years but Colucci says her company received a phone call just four months ago to work on the visual components of the AI Roosevelt.
“At LemonSlice, we train real-time video models and real-time interactive avatars,” said Colucci. “Basically our video model, you can think about it like a graphics layer that goes on top of Teddy’s brains and basically gives him his face and his body and his physical form.”
A full video of Trump’s interaction with the AI hasn’t been released, but Colucci says Trump asked about Roosevelt’s presidency, war, and the Panama Canal, as we’ve seen in some viral videos on social media.
Trump was clearly proud of his conversation, telling the crowd in a speech after his interaction, “I even had a conversation with Theodore Roosevelt. I said, ‘What do you think about the Panama Canal? Do you consider that your greatest achievement and how do you feel about the fact that the Democrats gave the Panama Canal away to Panama for $1?’”
Trump: “I even had a conversation with Theodore Roosevelt. I said, ‘What do you think about the Panama Canal? Do you consider that your greatest achievement and how do you feel about the fact that the Democrats gave the Panama Canal away to Panama for $1?’”
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 1, 2026 at 12:44 PM
President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, did sign a treaty with Panama in 1977 to begin the long process of handing the Panama Canal back to Panama. The full transition wasn’t completed until 1999, and Trump’s claims that it was done for $1 are nonsense, according to Newsweek.
Videos posted online show Trump’s first question about the Panama Canal but doesn’t show the president asking about the $1 sale. Based on Colucci’s memory of the event, it sounds like Trump may have returned to ask that question later. It seems like Eric Trump may have captured the moment where the AI responded.
“…I poured every once of will into that canal,” the AI says in the incomplete video. “Because I meant it to serve our people, not slip away through inaction or endless talk.”
Trump meets Roosevelt pic.twitter.com/LE6iv3o8vB
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) July 1, 2026
Colucci says her staff got to the new library extra early due to Secret Service requirements for when the president was there. Some of the agents were excited to ask the AI about Roosevelt’s experience with the Secret Service of his era. The Secret Service only assumed full-time responsibility for protecting the president after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901.
It was that assassination that lifted Vice President Roosevelt into the presidency, making him the youngest person to ever assume the office at the age of 42. There’s no word on whether Trump asked Roosevelt about what it was like to rise to the presidency so young. Trump turned 42 in 1988.
It seems extremely likely that more museums will embrace AI displays like the one just opened in North Dakota, even if they can distort history by generate words historical figures never actually said. But AI companies believe they’re helping deliver a helpful experience by bringing these characters to life.
“If it wasn’t for AI, there would be no way for, like, current generations to get to talk to TR,” Colucci told Gizmodo “You know, you can read about him, you can watch documentaries, but this is a way that anyone can kind of ask a very specific and personal question. People can ask for advice about stuff that’s happening in their life.”
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