Overview

• At Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit on July 15, President Trump asserted that his uncle, former MIT professor Dr John G. Trump, once taught Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.
• Major outlets including Hindustan Times, Times Now, Mediaite and Raw Story published fact checks refuting the assertion based on university enrollment data.
• Academic records confirm Kaczynski earned a bachelor’s in mathematics from Harvard and a master’s and PhD from the University of Michigan, with no MIT attendance.
• Dr John G. Trump taught at MIT from 1936 to 1973 and was known for pioneering high-voltage research, early cancer radiotherapy and radar technology during WWII.
• The episode underscores the role of rigorous fact-checking in countering misinformation embedded in political narratives.