Trump said "Nobody knows what magnets are"
In November 2025, Trump said "nobody knows what a magnet is" and "nobody knows what magnets are" while talking about Chinese control over rare earth elements and industrial supply chains. The quote is real, but it blurs basic physics with economic dependence on rare earth magnets.
What we know
On 10 November 2025, Trump twice made comments along the lines of "nobody knows what a magnet is" and "nobody knows what magnets are". One instance occurred in an interview on Fox News, and another during a brief exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. Fact-checkers have verified that both quotes are authentic.
In context, Trump was stressing how dependent modern manufacturing is on magnets made with rare earth elements. He argued that China dominates the mining and especially the processing of these elements, and that the United States needs to reclaim control over these supply chains. In this sense, "nobody knows" functions as his usual hyperbole that ordinary people and politicians supposedly fail to understand what he is now revealing.
However, the wording also confuses several separate ideas. Permanent magnets are basic objects in physics and engineering: their behavior has been described for centuries and is widely taught. Rare earth elements like neodymium and dysprosium are raw materials used in powerful permanent magnets, but they are not themselves "what magnets are" in a fundamental sense. Trump has made similarly confused remarks elsewhere, such as claiming that water stops magnets from working, which is not true for ordinary permanent magnets.
Because of this, the quote operates on two levels at once. At the rhetorical level, it is another exaggerated way of saying "people do not appreciate how critical rare earth magnets are for industry". At the factual level, it suggests that magnets are mysterious or poorly understood, and it blurs the distinction between physical principles and supply chain vulnerabilities. That mixture of exaggeration and confusion is why the line attracted so much ridicule but is also useful as a case study in how complex topics get distorted in political communication.
Common claims
- Trump literally believes nobody knows what magnets are.Partly true. The quote is real, but he was using hyperbole while talking about rare earth supply chains rather than literally denying basic physics.
- Magnets are poorly understood by scientists.Not supported. The physics of magnetism and permanent magnets is well established.
- China has a near monopoly on rare earth magnets used in industry.Largely supported. China dominates rare earth processing and production of many high-performance magnets, although other countries are investing in alternatives.
- Trump was perfectly accurate in his magnet comments.Not supported. He mixed up magnets as physical objects with rare earth supply chains and made incorrect claims in other contexts, such as saying water stops magnets from working.