Donald Trump only listens to one scientist, apparently — his oft-mentioned Uncle John Trump of MIT.
AP to Trump on climate: Scientists say we're getting to a point where it's irreversible
Trump: My uncle was a scientist…and "I didn’t talk to him about this particular subject, but I have a natural instinct for science, and I will say that you have scientists on both sides" pic.twitter.com/pMbjlodi0D
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 17, 2018
I finally had to look him up. He was an electrical engineer, with no qualifications at all to speak on climate science, and as the President* even admits, they did not discuss climatology. But even worse, he’s been dead for 33 years.
I’m going to guess that they never discussed science while he was alive at all — he was just the one member of the family they could point to and say, “See? Not all Trumps are venal morons.” He was the family token, and now he’s nothing but a useful prop from the grave.
No disrespect to electrical engineers, but… They’re not scientists. They’re engineers. The clue is in the name.
A “natural instinct for science”?
How scientific.
“There are __________ on both sides” is such a brilliant tactic.
Sometimes I’m quiet jealous of right wingers. Being the bad guy gives you so many more moves to choose from.
The white sheep of the family.
Well he did have a Masters in Physics from Columbia as well as a PhD in EE from MIT. I will note a EE professor at MIT is going to be quite familiar with science and almost definitely going to be working closely with physicists and have to be able to evaluate scientific papers related to his area. Does not make him a climate scientist but would have made him several orders of magnitude more capable than the current president of understanding their work. However as he has been dead for three decades he can’t contradict whatever words Trump might put in his mouth.
ZOMG SECRETS OF TRUMP STEAKS FINALLY REVEALED IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW 😱
Dead for 33 years, and still more knowledgeable about anything science related than 45 is.
We don’t know what Uncle John said about climate because they never talked about it. The Donald said so and he’s very smart and always right. However, the subject 30 or 40 years ago might have been “environment” rather than climate/climatology. The emphasis on environmental issues has changed over the years.
I assume someone is keeping track of the 1000 stupidest things Trump has said, and ranking them? If so “I didn’t talk to him about this particular subject, but I have a natural instinct for science” has to be near number 1? You can read this statement over and over and the sheer beauty of its stupidity leaves you gob-smacked every time.
Seems odd nobody has addressed that his comments about hurricane strength are outright lies. Hurricanes weren’t any stronger 50 or 100 years ago, and aren’t getting weaker now. He hasn’t actually lived in Florida for that much time, and he spends a lot of time in New York even now.
At the very least, more recent storms are more damaging, in terms of monetary damages. This is because of the ever increasing amounts of swamp that are being “reclaimed” in Florida for people to live in along with the sheer number of people in the state.