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marmar

(78,666 posts)
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 10:15 AM Sunday

Trump's odd 'Unabomber' story is just the latest example in a worrying trend


Trump’s odd 'Unabomber' story is just the latest example in a worrying trend
The president’s story made no sense — and he also doesn't always appear to know what his own administration is doing.

July 19, 2025, 6:00 AM EDT
By Michael A. Cohen, MSNBC Columnist


Earlier this week, President Donald Trump told a story that, even for the least honest president in American history, was notable.

During an energy and technology summit in Pittsburgh, Trump claimed that his uncle John Trump, a former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, taught the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. “My uncle was at MIT, one of the great professors,” Trump said. “Fifty-one years, whatever. Longest-serving professor in the history of MIT. Three degrees in nuclear, chemical and math. That’s a smart man.”

Though Trump has claimed for years that his deceased uncle is the longest-serving professor at MIT, it’s not true, and it has been repeatedly debunked. But Trump was only getting started. Kaczynski was one of his uncle’s students, Trump said. He then asked the audience, “Do you know who Kaczynski was?” and cryptically noted, “There’s very little difference between a madman and a genius.”

....(snip)....

This is an interesting story, but what is most notable about the president’s digression is that none of it was true.

....(snip)....

Trump’s Unabomber tale is yet another example of the what can feel like an increasing disconnect from reality. Yet, as with so many of Trump’s recent and unsettling statements, too many in the mainstream media seem uninterested in covering the story. Trump’s Unabomber story has received scant coverage, despite reflecting a repeated pattern of confused and exaggerated statements. ..................(more)

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-unabomber-story-biden-cognitive-decline-rcna219453




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malaise

(286,770 posts)
1. Agree 100%
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 10:18 AM
Sunday

This should be receiving way more coverage in MAGAt world

Get thee to the greatest page for visibility

livetohike

(23,540 posts)
3. Reminds me of my husband's cousin who had
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 10:21 AM
Sunday

early onset dementia (RIP). He would tell elaborate stories none of which were true. One of his favorites was that he was fighting in Vietnam. A very detailed battle. He was never in Vietnam. He was never in the service.

BOSSHOG

(43,329 posts)
4. My Great Uncle
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 10:22 AM
Sunday

On my third mother’s side was best man at George Washington’s wedding. Really a sharp guy.

Scrivener7

(56,484 posts)
5. Mary Trump, on her podcast yesterday, said this is a version of a story Epstein told, believe it or not.
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 10:34 AM
Sunday

I can't remember how it went. Either Epstein and Kaczynski took the same class somewhere or Epstein took a class taught by Kaczynski.

emulatorloo

(46,010 posts)
6. Unibomber, Arnold Palmer's Yuge Cock, his freind Hannibal Lector. Dancing to the hits for almost an entire rally.
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 10:39 AM
Sunday

But media was very interested in the ‘fact’ that if Biden had a ‘hypothetical’ fall he might end up in a ‘hypothetical’ wheelchair.

In the meantime Biden’s still upright and is sharp as a tack in his recent interviews.

Prairie Gates

(5,706 posts)
8. "Trump ID'd the Unabomber" should be as common as "Al Gore invented the Internet"
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 10:58 AM
Sunday

This story is certainly part of his trend of exaggerations and outright falsehoods, but it is a rather extreme version: he basically just made up an impossible conversation with his uncle to connect himself to the Unabomber. It's bonkers stuff.

We've all memory holed his mistaken identity of helicopter crashing with Willie Brown, which could be chalked up to an example of simple mistaken identity (though Trump and his people doubled and tripled down rather than admit the mistake).

But what would be the mistaken identity here? His uncle died in 1985. The Unabomber wasn't identified until 1996. His uncle taught at MIT. The Unabomber never attended MIT. What would be the confused conversation? There is none. He just made it up wholesale. It's completely crazy.

Hey Joe

(117 posts)
9. The main story here is of course
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 11:50 AM
Sunday

the almost total failure of corporate mainstream media to report the ineptitude, larceny and cruelty of this maladministration.
So afraid of losing access to, or being sued by,
this corrupt, fucking maniac that the real story goes untold.
They needn’t wonder why nobody listens to or believes them anymore. They shit their own bed
by failing to do their only job again and again.

PlanetBev

(4,358 posts)
10. Ain't a worrying trend for me
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 11:58 AM
Sunday

I won’t be satisfied until this worthless oxygen sucking reptile is drooling in a corner with a pant load.

Javaman

(64,259 posts)
11. Back in the day we an onion as a belt buckle as it was the style
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 12:36 PM
Sunday

Grandpa Simpson with the nuclear codes

ms liberty

(10,401 posts)
13. He's always used confabulation as part of his shameless self promotion but now
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 01:00 PM
Sunday

Now he's become a believer in his own propaganda and to a point, a tool to be manipulated by those around him.

Johonny

(24,189 posts)
14. Trump's uncle was the unibomber. Just like Ted Cruz's dad killed JFK
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 01:03 PM
Sunday

Without Trump releasing the files, we may never know if these statements are false.

nowforever

(564 posts)
16. If Biden told a lie like this
Sun Jul 20, 2025, 01:19 PM
Sunday

it would be dissected by the press daily and he would be labeled a severely demented incompetent leader. This press is dutifully ignoring his rambling inanity and lies for fear of being called nasty I guess. This idiot president is destroying the world order and we have a press that is neutered.

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