President Donald Trump was criticized after he rambled incoherently about the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier using magnets to "lift the planes up" instead of hydraulics while he ranted to reporters about uncovering the "tremendous fraud" in the U.S. government.
During his remarks at the White House on Wednesday, Trump was asked how he could ensure that billionaire ally Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was effectively reducing spending.
He didn't give a straight answer:
"There's tremendous fraud. And it's hard to believe that you can have that kind of fraud... What we're going to do is, tomorrow I'm having a news conference. I'm going to read to you some of the names that hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars have been given to."
"And if you tell me that we should be giving money to those things, those entities, I think you'll probably have to leave as a reporter because you're not very talented. When you look at the kind of money, billions and billions of dollars being thrown away illegally."
Trump, without providing specific evidence, accused aircraft manufacturer Boeing—which produces the 747 Trump flies on—of engaging in fraudulent activities:
“We signed a very strong contract, I signed a guaranteed maximum contract which they haven’t seen in a long time. And they’re saying they’re getting hurt by it." ...
“But they have to produce the product and we expect them to produce the product. They have to produce the product, they agreed to build planes at a certain price. They’re not used to that."
"They’re used to having time and material contracts where whatever it costs time and material. No dates. No anything. And it ends up costing five times more.”
He then oddly pivoted to discussing the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, which cost roughly $13 billion to make and has an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System that—as far as we know—is in working order.
But somehow he made it all about magnets:
“And they have all magnetic elevators to lift up 25 planes at a time, 20 planes at a time. And instead of using hydraulic, like on tractors that can handle anything from hurricanes to lightning to anything, they use magnets."
“It’s a new theory. Magnets are going to lift the planes up, and it doesn’t work. And they had billions and billions of dollars of cost overruns."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Although the ship's production faced delays and cost overruns, the reason behind Trump's claim that the magnets on these ships are ineffective remains unclear.
But it is, no matter how you cut it, utterly bonkers, as critics pointed out.
This isn't the first time Trump has rambled on about magnets.
In January 2024, he made headlines for claiming that magnets stop working when placed in water and therefore should not be on boats.
In his remarks, said to a group in Des Moines, Iowa, Trump claimed if you "give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that’s the end of the magnets."
