An impossible story about his uncle and the Unabomber
Trump said his uncle, an MIT professor, taught Ted Kaczynski. Kaczynski never attended MIT, and the uncle died a decade before the Unabomber was identified.
At a July 2025 energy event in Pittsburgh, Trump said his late uncle John Trump, a longtime MIT electrical-engineering professor, had taught Ted Kaczynski and described Kaczynski as a student. MIT told reporters it has no record that Kaczynski ever attended the school; he studied at Harvard and the University of Michigan.
John Trump died in 1985, about a decade before Kaczynski was identified as the Unabomber. MIT also said at least 10 people taught there longer than John Trump, contradicting the president's frequent claim that his uncle was the longest-serving professor in its history.
The receipts
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CNN (via Yahoo News) byline on original
Fact check: Trump tells fictional story about his uncle and the UnabomberABC News byline on original
Trump claims his uncle taught the Unabomber, offers no evidence to support claim