Overview
- President Trump asserted on July 15 that his uncle, Dr. John G. Trump, taught Unabomber Ted Kaczynski at MIT.
- Multiple fact-checkers and an MIT spokesperson refuted the anecdote, noting Kaczynski earned his degrees at Harvard and the University of Michigan.
- MIT confirmed it has no enrollment record for Ted Kaczynski at the institute where John Trump taught from 1936 to 1973.
- John G. Trump’s death in 1985 predates Kaczynski’s identification as the Unabomber in 1996, making any teaching tie impossible.
- White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to provide evidence when reporters pressed for documentation of the president’s claim.