U.S. President Donald Trump and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shake hands during a Congressional Space Medal of Honor presentation to the Artemis II crew at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, U.S., August 28, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper
President Donald Trump left NASA confused with remarks in which he said his uncle loved space and that it was something "we have genetically," at a medal ceremony for astronauts in Houston.
The president spoke Friday during a Congressional Space Medal of Honor ceremony at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he saluted four Artemis II astronauts, who in April became the first crew to travel beyond the Moon in more than 50 years, NASA said.
"I had an uncle who was a great scientist, a great man. He was at MIT for 41 years, Dr. John Trump. And he loved space. He used to tell me about space, space, all space," Donald Trump noted.
"He would throw in the word nuclear every once in a while. But he loved space. So I guess we have genetically, we sort of, I believe in that stuff," he continued.
John Trump's documented career contains no space research, according to Physics Today. He earned a doctorate in electrical engineering at MIT in 1933 and developed high-voltage generators. His work ranged from wartime radar to radiation cancer therapy.
Donald Trump's claims about the same uncle have been repeatedly fact-checked, according to Newsweek.
The magazine rated his claim that John Trump was MIT's longest-serving professor false, finding at least two faculty members who served longer.
The genetic framing is also decades old, according to the Los Angeles Times. Donald Trump told CNN's Larry King in 2007 that there was "something to the genes," the newspaper reported.
"You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn't it? Don't you believe? The racehorse theory," Donald Trump told a 2020 rally in Bemidji, Minnesota.
Eugenics historian Paul Lombardo told the Los Angeles Times the language echoed the movement of the 1920s and 1930s.
"He has all of the earmarks of a classic eugenicist," Lombardo said.
Donald Trump used similar language at a White House ceremony 11 days earlier when he honored 16-year-old lifeguard Ryder Williams on Aug. 17 for a rescue in Santa Cruz, California.
"You did a good job. It's good genetics," Donald Trump told the teenager's mother.
At Friday's event, the president's remarks were less coherent.
"I love it. I find it so interesting, so amazing. It's very special," he said of genetics and space.