Trump Uncle John really was one. He isn’t:
The famed scientist John G. Trump once explained his theory of how to treat one malady by the “direct injection of electrons” into patients’ skin. To treat another disease, he cited tests that showed it was possible to use electrons to “destroy or inactivate hepatitis virus in blood plasma.”
But, President Trump’s uncle said, “We unfortunately were not able to persuade anybody to try this,” because there had been “some casualties among volunteers.”
The president has long said that he and his uncle, who taught physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and died in 1985, represent a rare breed of “super genius,” benefiting from the same genes.
It is not known whether the president, in his widely condemned recentsuggestion that disinfectant be injected into the body to kill the novel coronavirus, was somehow vaguely channeling his uncle’s theories. What is clear is that Trump has sought repeatedly to present himself as a man of scientific knowledge largely because his uncle was so renowned — and that his efforts in recent weeks have only highlighted the vast gulf between them.
John Trump’s thoughts about killing hepatitis are detailed in the oral history archive at MIT. While he could not proceed with his theory, the idea behind it was based on his rigorous study of science. He had a career celebrated for his achievements in saving the lives of cancer patients, cleaning the environment, helping the U.S. military win World War II through radar technology and receiving the National Medal of Science.
President Trump has for years cited the genes he shares with his uncle to try to demonstrate that he, too, has a scientific intellect, an effort that he has stressed while dealing with the novel coronavirus.
“I really get it,” the president said March 6 about benefiting from his bloodline, as he discussed the coronavirus at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
During his campaign, he told CNN: “I had an uncle who went to MIT who is a top professor. Dr. John Trump. A genius. It’s in my blood. I’m smart.” He told the Boston Globe that he and his uncle “have very good genetics.”
A family friend who knew John Trump personally said the scientist would have recoiled at Donald Trump’s claim of scientific knowledge when promoting unproven drugs and other treatments.
“The John Trump I knew would have been horrified,” said John Van de Graaff, whose father, the famed scientist Robert Van de Graaff, was John Trump’s longtime business partner.
Van de Graaff told The Washington Post that he joined his father in many conversations with John Trump, and recalled him as a man dedicated to the rigorous testing of ideas who would not have approved of the way the president has blurted out dangerous supposed remedies for the novel coronavirus.
“He would have been distressed by a great deal of what President Trump has done,” Van de Graaff said. “He would have said, ‘Look at the science!’ ”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
[…]
Trump’s claim that he shares his uncle’s intellect has not been substantiated in terms of academic records or awards. Trump has said that his admission to what was then called the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania is evidence of “super genius stuff” because, he said, it was the “hardest school to get into, the best school in the world.”
In fact, as The Post reported last year, the undergraduate school attended by Trump accepted more than 40 percent of applicants, and Trump was interviewed by an admissions officer who was his older brother’s close friend. That admissions officer, James Nolan, said it was “not very difficult” to get into the school at the time, and he did not believe that Trump was a “genius.”
The story goes on to detail John Trump’s illustrious career and it really was illustrious, in everything from medical advances to serious contributions to the war effort in WWII.
Little nephew Donnie certainly didn’t understand any of it:
John Trump later turned his scientific genius to solving environmental problems, including an effort to clean certain types of waste, which the Associated Press covered in a story headlined “Sewage Sludge Problem Solved.”
The story quoted John Trump as saying he thought the venture was “very important” because it showed that electron beams could be used to destroy viruses that lived in sewage, a comment that tied together the value of environmental policy and public health.
Yet President Trump has cited his uncle in explaining his claim that climate change, which the World Health Organization has tied to a rise in viruses, is a “hoax,” as he has said on Twitter.
Asked in a 2016 interview by the Associated Press about research by scientists who said climate change “is nearing a point where this can’t be reversed,” candidate Trump responded: “No, no. Some say that and some say differently. I mean, you have scientists on both sides of it. My uncle was a great professor at MIT for many years. Dr. John Trump. And I didn’t talk to him about this particular subject, but I have a natural instinct for science, and I will say that you have scientists on both sides of the picture.”
In fact, 97 percent of climate scientists agree that the temperature is warming, which is “extremely likely due to human activities,” according to NASA.
In fact, it’s hard to believe that Trump has anything in common at all with his genius uncle:
A former business partner, Denis Robinson, wrote an obituary for Physics Today that remains one of the most vivid portraits of John Trump. It sharply contrasts with the president’s traits of attacking enemies, airing grievances and extolling unproven ideas.
John Trump “was remarkably even tempered, with kindness and consideration to all, never threatening or arrogant in manner, even when under high stress,” Robinson wrote in 1985. “He was outwardly and in appearance the mildest of men, with a convincing persuasiveness, carefully marshalling his facts.”
Trump proves that eugenics are bullshit. Maybe that’s his contribution to the world.