Latest news with #TedKaczynski
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
It's well past time to start talking about Trump's decline
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump told a story that, even for the least honest president in American history, was notable. During an energy and technology summit in Pittsburgh, Trump claimed that his uncle John Trump, a former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, taught the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. 'My uncle was at MIT, one of the great professors,' Trump said. 'Fifty-one years, whatever. Longest-serving professor in the history of MIT. Three degrees in nuclear, chemical and math. That's a smart man.' Though Trump has claimed for years that his deceased uncle is the longest-serving professor at MIT, it's not true, and it has been repeatedly debunked. But Trump was only getting started. Kaczynski was one of his uncle's students, Trump said. He then asked the audience, 'Do you know who Kaczynski was?' and cryptically noted, 'There's very little difference between a madman and a genius.' According to the president, he once had a conversation with John Trump about Kaczynski: 'What kind of a student was he, Uncle John?' Dr. John Trump,' Trump asked. 'He said, 'What kind of a student? 'Man,' he said, 'seriously good. ... He'd go around correcting everybody.' But it didn't work out too well for him.' This is an interesting story, but what is most notable about the president's digression is that none of it was true. First, Kaczynski attended Harvard, not MIT, so it would be unusual, though not impossible, that this uncle would come in contact with the future Unabomber. (Students at both schools do cross-enroll on occasion, though NBC News reported the courses Kaczynski took were taught at Harvard, not MIT.) Second, John Trump passed away in 1985. Kaczynski committed bombings that killed three people and wounded nearly two dozen others from 1978 to 1995. He was finally arrested in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison in 1998. If both the president and his uncle knew that Kaczynski was the Unabomber more than a decade before his arrest ... now that would be a story! Asked about Trump's making up this story, White House press secretary Katherine Leavitt admonished and deflected. 'That with so many issues going on in the world, I'm a little bit surprised you would ask such a question,' said Leavitt. Trump's Unabomber tale is yet another example of the what can feel like an increasing disconnect from reality. Yet, as with so many of Trump's recent and unsettling statements, too many in the mainstream media seem uninterested in covering the story. Trump's Unabomber story has received scant coverage, despite reflecting a repeated pattern of confused and exaggerated statements. For example, the day after his bizarre digression in Pittsburgh, Trump complained once again about Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and publicly stated, 'I was surprised he was appointed.' The person who appointed Powell was Donald Trump in 2017. On Monday, at a White House Faith Office summit, he called Powell 'a knucklehead' and a 'stupid guy,' derided the intelligence of other politicians, including his former energy secretary Rick Perry, and said former President Joe Biden 'wasn't faithful enough and sought to persecute religious leaders.' At the same gathering, Trump asserted that gas prices have 'gone to the lowest level in decades. You're seeing $1.99, $1.98, I saw $1.95 at certain states.' Trump has made this claim repeatedly — two weeks ago and several times in April. In fact, the average national gas price has never fallen below $3 a gallon since Trump took office in January, and it is currently around $3.16. Trump also appears at times to have very little idea of what's happening within his own administration. In the run-up to passage of his massive tax and spending bill, he repeatedly claimed that it would eliminate taxes on Social Security — a claim that massively exaggerates the impact of the bill. Of even greater concern is a story that received almost no attention. NOTUS reported that, only days before the legislation was signed into law, Trump told House Republicans that if the party wants to win elections, it shouldn't cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. According to three sources, one GOP member had to tell Trump, 'But we're touching Medicaid in this bill.' Additionally, Trump made an exceedingly odd comment when asked why his administration had paused military aid shipments to Ukraine, going so far as to ask a reporter whether she knew who had ordered the halt. One might conclude from this compendium of stories that America is in the midst of a governing crisis. The president of the United States is making up stories, repeatedly making false claims and attacking other public officials. Yet there's been little reporting connecting these incidents. What makes this lack of attention even more ironic is that it was just under three months ago at the White House Correspondents' Dinner that Axios reporter Alex Thompson was given the Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence, in recognition of his 'aggressive reporting on President Biden' that 'revealed the President's cognitive decline was impacting his ability to do his job, information the White House tried to conceal.' Thompson, along with CNN anchor Jake Tapper, wrote a bestselling book that further explored the president's alleged decline and the White House's attempt to conceal his impairment. In receiving this honor, Thompson upbraided himself and his fellow reporters for dropping the ball on the Biden story. 'President Biden's decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception. But being truth-tellers also means telling the truth about ourselves. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story, and some people trust us less because of it. We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows.' Yet, right now, as we speak, the president of the United States is showing substantial, arguably greater public evidence of possible cognitive decline. Trump at times is unaware of what is happening inside his administration, can seem clueless about major policy events, and doesn't always appear to understand the very legislation that he is promoting. One can certainly debate the extent to which Biden was truly experiencing cognitive decline. But if reporters are going to argue that the media dropped the ball in not giving that story greater coverage, then how does one explain not even talking about what is happening right now? To quote Thompson, where are the truth-tellers about the current occupant of the White House? This article was originally published on
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Claims Uncle Taught the Unabomber, No Evidence to Support Allegation
President Donald Trump claimed his late uncle, John Trump, taught Ted Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber, while at MIT.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Seth Meyers Debunks Trump's ‘Full Hallucination' About His Uncle and the Unabomber
Amid ongoing efforts to not talk about the Epstein scandal, President Donald Trump went on a tangent about his uncle this week, claiming that the man taught Ted Kaczynski — a.k.a the Unabomber — and declared Kaczynski a good student. But on Wednesday night, Seth Meyers fully debunked that story. While speaking at the Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit, the president paused to 'brag' about his uncle, 'because when I first heard about AI, you know, it's not my thing,' but his uncle worked at MIT. Trump repeated his claim that his uncle worked at the university for 51 years and was the longest serving professor at the school, neither of which is true. More from TheWrap Seth Meyers Debunks Trump's 'Full Hallucination' About His Uncle and the Unabomber | Video 'Untamed' Review: Eric Bana Is Excellent in Netflix's Moody Yosemite Mystery Senate Votes to Cut Federal Funding for PBS, NPR Stephen Colbert Channels the Beach Boys to Solve Latest Trump Mystery: 'What Happened to Jeffrey Epstein? God Only Knows' | Video 'Kaczynski was one of his students. Do you know who Kaczynski was? There's very little difference between a madman and a genius,' Trump said. 'But Kaczynski, I said, 'What kind of a student was he, Uncle John? Dr. John Trump.'' 'Then he said, 'Seriously, good.' He said he'd correct, he'd go around correcting everybody, but it didn't work out too well for him,' Trump continued. As the clip ended, Meyers paused to soak it in, before picking apart the story even further, beyond Trump's false claim about his uncle's tenure. 'It turns out, A) the Unabomber didn't go to MIT,' Meyers explained (which is true, Kaczynski actually went to Harvard). 'And B) Trump's uncle died 10 years before Kaczynski became known as the Unabomber,' he continued. 'So the whole thing we just heard wasn't just a small lie, it was like a full hallucination. Including the conversation Trump made up between him and his uncle. Although, how could you tell it was made up? I mean, it sounded so natural.' The late night host then mimicked the exchange, poking fun at the idea that Trump would refer to his uncle as Dr. John Trump in casual conversation. You can watch Seth Meyers's full 'A Closer Look' segment in the video above. The post Seth Meyers Debunks Trump's 'Full Hallucination' About His Uncle and the Unabomber | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
New York Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Late Night Fact-Checks Trump on His Uncle and the Unabomber
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night's highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now. Weird Flex, Bro At an A.I. conference in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, President Trump said his uncle, John Trump, had been the 'longest-serving professor in the history of M.I.T.' and held 'three degrees in nuclear, chemical, and math.' Trump added that his uncle's students had included Ted Kaczynski, who he described as being 'seriously good.' 'Wow, we went from zero to Unabomber like that,' Jordan Klepper said on Wednesday's 'Daily Show,' snapping his fingers. Klepper pointed out that while the president's uncle had indeed been a well-known M.I.T. professor, he was not the longest-serving one, nor did he have degrees in 'nuclear, chemical and math' (he had a Ph.D. in electrical engineering). He said it was also highly unlikely that he had told his nephew Donald a story about teaching the Unabomber, 'because nobody knew who Kaczynski was until 1996, and Trump's uncle died in 1985.' 'Kaczynski did not go to M.I.T. He went to Harvard. [imitating Trump] 'Yes, but sometimes old Ted would take the crosstown bus over to M.I.T, then he would go around correcting people. He'd say, 'I actually didn't go to school here, you know, you don't actually know me. I'm a figment of the imagination of your dumbest nephew.'' — STEPHEN COLBERT 'So the whole thing we just heard wasn't just a small lie, it was like a full hallucination.' — SETH MEYERS 'Now, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe Trump just misspoke, made a slip. I mean, who among us hasn't accidentally told people that our uncle taught the Unabomber?' — JORDAN KLEPPER 'What I'm saying is, isn't it great that we finally have a president whose brain works perfectly?' — JORDAN KLEPPER The Punchiest Punchlines (Snoozefest Edition) 'But the big story today is that Trump lashed out at his own supporters who are criticizing him over the Epstein files, calling them 'weaklings who have bought into B.S. hook, line and sinker.' Trump hasn't been this mad at the people he loved since McDonald's introduced salads.' — JIMMY FALLON 'No, he's right. The Epstein saga is a total snoozefest. I mean, the most powerful man in the world is blocking information about a cabal of the rich, the famous and the royal befriending a con man, who regularly flies off on his private plane to his private island to do super-illegal sex stuff. Then the con man is arrested, people are afraid he's going to name names, but before he can, he mysteriously dies right after being taken off of suicide watch in a federal prison during the administration of the guy who is blocking the release of the information. Boring!' — STEPHEN COLBERT Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Brace Yourself': Stephen Colbert Spots Trump Moment That Quickly 'Went Off The Rails'
'Late Show' host Stephen Colbert on Wednesday said President Donald Trump's event a day earlier 'went off the rails pretty darn quick.' Trump was supposed to discuss new investments in AI and energy, but then derailed himself with a long, strange ramble about his uncle, John Trump, who was a professor at MIT. The president boasted that his uncle was 'one of the great professors, 51 years, whatever, longest-serving professor in the history of MIT, three degrees in nuclear, chemical, and math.' 'Brace yourself,' Colbert warned his audience after playing the clip. 'None of that was true.' Trump's uncle was not the longest-serving professor at MIT. He had one degree, not three, and it was in electrical engineering not 'nuclear, chemical, and math.' Trump also said his uncle taught Ted Kaczynski, the 'Unabomber' terrorist who killed people via mail bombs. The president told a whole story about asking his uncle what kind of student Kaczynski was. His uncle, Trump claimed, told him that the future Unabomber was 'seriously good' and would correct the other students' work. 'None of that is true either,' Colbert said. Kaczynski went to Harvard, not MIT. 'Even more insane,' Colbert said, Trump's uncle died more than a decade before Kaczynski was ID'ed and arrested. 'So why on Earth would Trump have asked his uncle about him?' Colbert wondered, then broke out his impression of the president to envision how it might have happened. 'Hey, Uncle John, Uncle Professor Dr. John Trump, professor, sir, uncle. You know that random guy who isn't famous at all and lives in the woods and machines his own screws?' Colbert asked in his Trump voice. 'What was it like when you didn't teach him?' See more in his Wednesday night monologue:
