Trump’s firebrand press secretary wasn’t happy with a White House reporter who dared to question an unlikely tale told by the president about familial links to a notorious domestic terrorist.
Leavitt scolded The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg on Thursday when the D.C. correspondent brought up Trump’s “impossible story” about his uncle, noted Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor John Trump. He claimed that this father’s brother taught “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski at the famed university.
“Kaczynski was one of his students,” he said on Tuesday, at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh.
Trump made the bizarre brag even though Kaczynski had never attended MIT. Additionally, the Unabomber’s identity was not known until around 1996. John Trump died in 1985.
Even still, Leavitt passionately defended the commander-in-chief’s eyebrow-raising claims after Feinberg pointed out the inaccuracies and asked: “What was he talking about?”
“Andrew, with so many issues going on in the world, I’m a little bit surprised you would ask such a question, although I’m not sometimes, coming from you, I will say,” Leavitt blasted, adding, “But I’m willing to give you an answer, nevertheless.”
Leavitt continued, failing to address directly any of the points Feinberg raised.
“The president’s uncle did, in fact, teach at MIT. He was a very intelligent professor. The president is very proud of his family. In fact, I have a, or rather, the president has a letter from his uncle on the MIT letterhead that sits in the Oval Office dining room. Maybe we’ll let you see it sometime,” she said.
While at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh earlier this week, Trump also repeated the claim that his uncle was the “longest-serving professor in the history of MIT.”
This story has been debunked by the university. Whilst the late Mr. Trump did serve for 52 years, 49 as a professor or professor emeritus, “at least 10 people have been (or continue to be) professors at MIT for at least 53 years,” a spokesperson said in January last year.
“He was certainly a valued member of the community for many decades,” they added.
The president also claimed that his uncle earned “three degrees in nuclear, chemical, and math.”
This isn’t quite true. He actually earned a B.S. in electrical engineering, an M.S. in physics, and then a doctorate in electrical engineering.
Kaczynski was responsible for a series of bombings, which killed three people and injured 23 others between 1978 and 1995. Kaczynski was arrested by the FBI in April 1996. He pleaded guilty in January 1998.
He died by suicide in 2023 while serving a life sentence.
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