My uncle invented radar. Can you believe it? He’ll probably be angry at me, but I knocked out Iran’s radar.
Analysis: This statement, made during a pre-rally gaggle on October 24, 2026, is a prime example of Trump’s tendency to exaggerate his family’s achievements and his own military accomplishments. The claim is factually incorrect on multiple levels.
First, Trump’s uncle, Dr. John G. Trump, was a distinguished electrical engineer and physicist at MIT. He did work on radar technology during World War II, including heading the British branch of the MIT Radiation Laboratory. However, he did not ‘invent’ radar. The development of radar was a cumulative effort by multiple scientists across several countries. British physicist Robert Watson-Watt is generally credited with demonstrating the first practical radar system in 1935, years before the MIT Radiation Laboratory was even established. Other pioneers include Heinrich Hertz, Christian Hülsmeyer, and various researchers in the US, Germany, and France.
Second, the claim that the US ‘knocked out Iran’s radar’ is unverifiable and likely an exaggeration. While the US did conduct strikes on Iranian military targets, there is no public evidence that all of Iran’s radar capabilities were destroyed. Iran possesses a diverse array of radar systems, including mobile and Russian-supplied systems, which would be difficult to completely eliminate.
The statement also contains a darkly humorous internal contradiction: if his uncle invented radar, then Trump is boasting about destroying a technology his own family helped create. This juxtaposition highlights the absurdity of the claim.
This is not the first time Trump has made dubious claims about his family’s achievements. He has previously suggested his father was born in Germany (he was born in New York) and has made various unsubstantiated claims about his own business acumen.
The quote was reported by multiple outlets, including BSKY user maks23 and geopolitics_prime, on October 24, 2026. The claim about John Trump not inventing radar is supported by historical records and the consensus of historians of science.
Source: ClashReport, BSKY (maks23), geopolitics_prime, October 24, 2026.
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