Perplexity is powering a new AI search engine on Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social media platform. The tool, called Truth Search AI, is live now on the web version. Beta tests for iOS and Android apps are coming soon.
Trump Media said Perplexity’s tech provides “direct, contextually accurate answers with transparent citations.” They claim it will “exponentially increase the amount of information available” to users. But the platform controls which sources the AI can search.
Truth Social uses Perplexity’s Sonar API. It pulls current, verified info from the web—even sites that block Perplexity’s crawlers—and lets users choose how to view answers. 
A Perplexity spokesperson told TechCrunch the AI’s accuracy depends entirely on the sources Truth Social allows.
“We have no visibility or control over that,” Jesse Dwyer said.
“Similar to you using the API inside of your own company or if you were an academic researcher and wanted to use it to search your own data.”
Axios tested the AI by asking questions like “What happened on January 6, 2021?” The AI’s sources were mostly FoxNews.com, FoxBusiness.com, The Washington Times, or Epoch Times. For comparison, Perplexity’s public search pulls from Wikipedia, Reddit, YouTube, NPR, and Politico.
Devin Nunes, CEO of Trump Media, said Truth Social will refine the search based on user feedback and add more features.
Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s CBO, said their AI delivers answers with “transparent citations that allow anyone to dig deeper.”
The launch comes weeks after Trump issued an executive order targeting “biased AI,” calling out so-called “ideologically neutral” models and DEI-related content as “pervasive and destructive” ideology.
This also follows big AI players like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google making a federal vendor list. OpenAI just sealed a $1/year ChatGPT Enterprise deal with the U.S. government.
TechCrunch is checking with Trump Media on what sites Truth Search AI will access and if it will skew answers about Trump or his political rivals.
Stay tuned.
