donald trump is not known for sticking to the topic. Ask about recent murder either charlie kirkhis young and influential political ally, and will go on to talk about construction of a ballroom in the White House. Put him on stage for a campaign rally days before the election and you might hear him talk about the size of a golf legend. Arnold Palmer’s genitals.. And of course, if you broach the topic of immigration, there is always the chance that “the late great Hannibal Lecter”could arise.
Lately, the president has seen fit to ramble repeatedly about something he doesn’t understand and has never been asked to explain: magnets. How he came to be so obsessed but misinformed about a phenomenon typically explored in seventh-grade science class remains an enigma, but it’s clear that he has strong feelings about it. Trump’s main conclusion seems to be that magnetism is fundamentally inexplicable and therefore unreliable as an element of human technology. Here, we take a look at his history of wrestling with the physics principle that allows you to put photographs on your refrigerator.
Believe it or not, Trump actually liked magnets, at least for metaphorical purposes. In the years leading up to his 2016 presidential bid, he was still playing the role of business guru, using his Twitter account to give advice like This: “Lead by example and you’ll be a magnet for the right people. That’s the best way to work with people you like.”
Trump tweeted some version of this quote, which comes from his 2009 book. Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education in Business and Life – several times in 2014 and 2015, I obviously liked the sound of it. But once he became a presidential candidate, he began talking about imams in a negative (though still figurative) light. In the election campaign, Trump fiance “turn off the magnet of jobs and benefits” that attracts immigrants to the United States. In 2018, when he argued that armed teachers would deter school shootings, he stated tweeted that a “‘gun-free’ school is a magnet for bad people.” And in a nonsensical passage from a 2019 speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition, he said accused Democrats fail to address “child trafficking magnets.”
Although Trump had not yet publicly revealed his ignorance about literal magnetism, some of his detractors early on made a connection between him and the 2010 campaign. Group of crazy clowns song “Miracles,” in which the rap duo asks, “Damn magnets, how do they work?” Early in the 2016 election cycle, a Twitter user aware a meme of ICP’s Shaggy 2 Dope delivering the line of magnets, adding the caption “Trump doesn’t know how magnets work. #LittleKnownCandidateFacts.” It was a generic insult to Trump’s intelligence that would later prove remarkably accurate.
Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System
Throughout his first term, Trump repeatedly criticized the design of the new Gerald Ford class of Navy aircraft carriers, and was supposedly obsessed with one element in particular: the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), which launches aircraft with electrical currents, replacing older steam-powered catapults. Hey reclaimed Shortly after taking office in 2017, he had been informed that there were problems with the new system, saying that “it costs hundreds of millions of dollars more and is of no use” and that “you have to be Albert Einstein to solve it.”
Trump rambled again about magnetic catapults in 2018 meeting with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “They’re using magnets instead of steam,” he complained. “It’s frankly ridiculous.” He continued to insist that the improved launch system had technical problems and was too expensive. count to attendees at a National Republican Congressional Committee dinner in 2019 that “you have to go to MIT to find out how this damn thing works.” He seemed to be under the mistaken impression that EMALS didn’t work at all. “We have an aircraft carrier, you can’t send planes from there,” he said.
elevator hater
Trump didn’t have much reason to stir up imams after he was impeached in 2020, but as he embarked on his comeback in 2024, his peculiar disdain for them returned with a vengeance. During a rally in Iowa during the Republican primaries, he criticized not only the “stupid electric catapults” of the Gerald Ford carriers but the installation of magnetic elevators for airplanes instead of hydraulic ones.
This time, he added a novel theory about the properties of magnets. “Think about it, magnets,” huh? saying. “Now, all I know about magnets is this. Give me a glass of water. Let me drop it on the magnets. That’s the end of magnets.” Trump was apparently suggesting that magnets are generally not suitable for an ocean-going ship, but as many commenters pointed out, wetting a magnet does not destroy it or diminish its magnetic properties.
In February 2025, reinstated in the White House and answer questions from journalists at the swearing-in of Tulsi Gabbard As Director of National Intelligence, Trump once again returned to the specter of magnetic elevators. Going off on a tangent in which he explained his dissatisfaction with contractual negotiations with Boeing over the price of the new Air Force One planes, he began to complain about cost overruns in the Gerald Ford.
“They have all the magnetic lifts to lift 25 planes at a time, 20 planes at a time,” he said. saying. “And instead of using hydraulic systems, like in tractors, which can handle anything from hurricanes to lightning to anything, they used magnets. It’s a new theory, the magnets are going to lift the planes, and it doesn’t work.”
Trump also tried out his routine during his comments about the Navy crew of the USS George Washington in Japan during a tour of East Asia last month, encouraging them to shout their support for steam catapults instead of the electromagnetic system.
“Let me ask you the second question,” he continued. “Hydraulics for your elevators, or magnets? You know, the new thing is magnets. So, instead of using hydraulic systems that you can get hit by lightning and it’s fine, you take a little glass of water and drop it on the magnets, I don’t know what’s going to happen.” He then promised to sign an executive order to ensure that all aircraft carriers are built with steam launch systems and hydraulic lifts instead of using magnets for both.
The Chinese connection
This week, Trump delivered his most confusing comments about magnets to date, confirming that he doesn’t understand what they are in the slightest.
In an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, Trump discussed his trade war with China, which eased somewhat after he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed last month to roll back certain retaliatory tariffs. As part of the temporary stunt, China also agreed to suspend limits on exports of rare earth metals, some of which are used to make magnets. The nation is by far the world leader in refining these elements to make parts for electronic devices.
“President Xi was willing to make rare earth things, they are magnets,” Trump said Ingraham. “Now, no one knows what a magnet is. If you don’t have a magnet, you don’t make a car. You don’t make a computer. You don’t make televisions and radios and all the other things; you don’t make anything.” Trump went on to give an account of his conversations with Xi. “Because of the tariffs, I called and said, ‘Listen, here’s the story. You guys are going to act as a magnet. I’m going to act as a magnet over you,'” he said.
Trump did not explain why he thinks magnets are fundamentally mysterious, although that can hardly be considered a slip, because he made the same claim earlier that day.
That night, speaking from the Oval Office at the swearing-in of businessman Sergio Gor as ambassador to India, Trump talked about China, tariffs and, of course, imams. “China was going to hit us with rare earths,” hey saying. “Now everyone says, ‘What does that mean?’ Magnets. If China refused to give magnets because they have a monopoly on magnets because they were allowed to (happened over a period of 32 years), there would be no car made in the entire world, there would be no radio, there would be no television, there would be no internet, there would be nothing because magnets are an important part. Now, no one knows what magnets are, and it’s not very sophisticated, but building a magnetic system would take two years.”
How long until we hear another of the president’s philosophical reflections on magnets? No matter the time, place or issue at hand, you are drawn to the subject as if by an invisible force. And he seems increasingly convinced that this is some kind of plot to undermine American power and prosperity. Whatever you once heard about magnets being untrustworthy must have really stuck with you.
