President Donald Trump humiliated his Energy secretary in front of the full cabinet, cutting him off mid-sentence with "nobody cares."
Energy Secretary Chris Wright had barely launched into a story about Albert Einstein when Donald Trump interrupted him. The remarks came as Donald Trump signed executive orders directing federal agencies to accelerate the shift to post-quantum cryptography and boost domestic computing investment.
"A hundred twenty — 141 years ago, Albert Einstein — 121 years ago, Albert Einstein published a paper —" Wright began.
"Nobody cares," Donald Trump said, cutting him off.
The Trump line prompted the other secretaries to laugh at the snub.
"Good point. Good point," Wright said.
"And usually, won't catch you, but then go ahead," the president told him.
Wright pressed on, using the Einstein story to praise Donald Trump's own family, noting that the scientist had laid the groundwork for modern quantum science. Forty years later, he said, the president's uncle built on those principles.
"Donald Trump's uncle, John Trump, was a pioneer in applying light radiation and the reflections of it to develop radar at the MIT radiation lab, critical in D-Day, critical in the end in winning World War II," Wright continued.
John G. Trump was a pioneering MIT electrical engineer who helped develop microwave radar during World War II and served as director of the Radiation Laboratory's British Branch.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, acknowledged he didn't know much about the orders he was signing.
"Does anybody know what that is?" he asked of quantum cryptography. "You'll hear very soon, so you're going to find it interesting."
The executive orders direct federal agencies to accelerate the shift to post-quantum encryption and funnel new investment into the domestic quantum computing industry.