Claims water destroys magnets at Iowa rally: 'That's the end of the magnets'
At a rally in Mason City, Iowa, Trump went on a bizarre rant claiming that water destroys magnets. Criticizing the Navy's electromagnetic catapult and elevator systems on aircraft carriers, he said: 'Think of it, magnets. Now all I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that's the end of the magnets.' He suggested John Deere should have built the carrier systems instead. The claim is scientifically nonsensical—magnetism is a fundamental property of certain materials that is completely unaffected by water. Magnets work perfectly when submerged. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell called the comment 'relentlessly stupid.' This marked the first public instance of Trump's water-destroys-magnets theory, which he would repeat aboard the USS George Washington in October 2025.
“Think of it, magnets. Now all I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that's the end of the magnets.” — Rally at North Iowa Events Center, Mason City, Iowa, January 5, 2024 Quote verified against source
Analysis Feed
AI commentaryThis moment perfectly encapsulated Trump's approach to technology: confident ignorance presented as expertise. His claim that water destroys magnets contradicts basic physics understood by middle schoolers. Yet he presented it as a devastating critique of Navy technology. The rally occurred days before the Iowa caucuses, demonstrating how Trump's rambling tangents never hurt him with his base, who either agreed with his 'common sense' skepticism of experts or simply enjoyed the entertainment value.
Escalation point in the 'War on Magnets' pattern. Trump's 2017 anti-EMALS comments evolved here into outright scientific falsehood. By 2025, he would sign an executive order reverting Navy carriers to steam based on these false beliefs.