President Donald Trump repeatedly urged people to “do magnets” during a major security conference. The remarks came as new reporting reveals his son’s investment firm holds a stake in a magnet start-up seeking a large Pentagon loan.
Donald Trump says ‘do magnets’ amid his son’s stake
Speaking at the Pennsylvania Defence & Innovation Summit on Wednesday, Donald Trump veered off script to make a pitch about magnets. “I hope you’re gonna do magnets. Somebody out there, I hope, you’re all brilliant people, magnets. Do magnets, OK?” he told the audience of defence contractors.
He continued pressing the point without offering technical specifics. “I’ll tell you how to make money. Do magnets,” Trump said. “You’re doing a lot of great stuff. Do magnets. Because one thing we don’t have, but we are getting close, but do magnets.”
The seemingly unfocused commentary adds to a lengthy record of puzzling statements Trump has made on the subject. During a Fox News appearance last November, he claimed magnets were essential to emerging American technologies, while also expressing wonder that “nobody knows what a magnet is.”
Scientists have, in fact, understood magnetism since the 19th century. Physicists Hans Christian Ørsted, André-Marie Ampère, Michael Faraday, and James Clerk Maxwell developed equations explaining how electric currents in metals produce magnetic phenomena. Quantum mechanics later confirmed that magnetic properties stem from the intrinsic spin motion of electrons within certain substances.
While the president struggled to articulate the science, his son Donald Trump Jr. appears to have a firmer grasp on the financial potential of magnets. The Financial Times reported in December that his venture firm, 1789 Capital, holds interests in Vulcan Elements, a small rare earths start-up. The company was lined up for a roughly $620 million Pentagon loan aimed at boosting domestic magnet production.
ProPublica reported in May that White House counsellor Peter Navarro personally pressed the Defence Department to approve the loan. That push came just seven weeks before Trump urged the same industry to invest in magnets.
(Source: The Daily Beast)
