At the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, President Donald Trump took a moment to bring up his late Uncle John, a professor of electrical engineering at MIT, who according to the president taught the late “Unabomber” terrorist, Ted Kaczynski.
Trump said he recalled a conversation with his uncle: “I said, ‘What kind of a student was he, Uncle John?’ Dr. John Trump? I said, ‘What kind of a student?’ And 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.”
John Trump died in 1985. Ted Kaczynski wasn’t identified until 1996, and he went to Harvard, not MIT.
Donald Trump is just making shit up. pic.twitter.com/55LDceWlzH
— DonkConnects
(@donkoclock) July 16, 2025
A number of media outlets including CNN fact-checked the President’s remarks and provided facts including that his uncle, John Trump died in 1985, and Kaczynski wasn’t revealed as the Unabomber until 1996 so Donald Trump wouldn’t have know to ask about Kaczynski; and Kaczynski attended Harvard University and the University of Michigan, not MIT.
Donald Trump’s nephew, Fred Trump III, confirmed on social media by writing: “Not that anyone really cares, but my Great Uncle @johntrump, who was a very nice and caring man, together with his wife Elora, did not teach the #Unibomber. Was never discussed at the Trump family dinner table.”
Not that anyone really cares, but my Great Uncle @johntrump, who was a very nice and caring man, together with his wife Elora, did not teach the #Unibomber. Was never discussed at the Trump family dinner table.
— Fred Trump (@FredTrump_) July 17, 2025
More than one of his followers on social media replied, “We care,” as one replied, “I care…it’s good to hear that some Trumps (including Mary) are good decent people.”
Fred’s sister, Mary Trump, has written three books about their uncle and family: Too Much and Never Enough (2020), The Reckoning (2021), and Who Could Ever Love You (2024).
Fred Trump III, who with Mary endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, wrote the memoir All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way (2024), which he said he hoped would influence voters prior to election day.