Trump votes early in Florida, then says his uncle invented radar

Trump has added a new invention to the family tree, and the family member isn’t around to object.

On Saturday, after he and Melania voted early at the Palm Beach County elections office, Trump was listing everything he says the US has destroyed in Iran when he got to the radar. “My uncle invented radar. Can you believe it? From MIT, Dr. John Trump.” Then a moment of family feeling: “he’ll probably be angry at me, but I knocked out their radar.”

We can’t believe it, no. John G. Trump was a genuinely distinguished MIT engineer. Physics Today says he was one of the first to join MIT’s wartime radar programme, became secretary of the microwave committee behind it and ran the Radiation Lab’s British branch. That programme started after a British mission brought over the cavity magnetron, which let radar that already existed work at much shorter wavelengths. He helped build it. He didn’t invent it.

Physics Today also quotes his business partner’s memory of the uncle: “never threatening or arrogant in manner.” So it’s hard to say he’d be angry. Very easy to say he’d correct the record.