Build American AI's core political asset — a list of over 500,000 named supporters — was always the kind of number that functioned as proof only if no one checked the receipts. The organization is funded by Leading the Future, an industry-backed super PAC, and it spent more than half a million dollars on advertising to acquire that list. When it presented the names to policymakers as evidence of a popular mandate, it was presenting a purchased product as a democratic signal. The documentation of that purchase does not introduce…