The affordability crisis is a hoax, according to President Donald Trump, as he repeatedly brushes off the cost-of-living angst that keeps showing up in polls. Voters disagree: a new AP-NORC survey shows approval of his handling of the economy is at 31 percent, the lowest of his term . Meanwhile, Republican-run states have been busy outlawing actual hoaxes—AI deepfakes that can mislead voters. They are now on the books in roughly half the country.

You might think the two are unrelated, but they aren't. Trump’s new AI order threatens to withhold broadband dollars from states with "onerous" rules, money that disproportionately wires rural, red America. While Trump derides affordability woes as fake, he’s brandishing a lever that could make a very tangible thing—cheap, reliable internet

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