The Emperor’s New Magnets

Trump’s wet physics and the theater of power

Aboard the USS George Washington this week, Donald Trump—rambling incoherently—revived a claim he first made at an Iowa rally in January 2024: that water disables magnets. “Give me a glass of water,” he said then, “drop it on the magnets—that’s the end of the magnets.” Now, he’s using that same myth to argue that U.S. aircraft carriers should abandon electromagnetic catapults and elevators in favor of steam and hydraulics.

Never mind that the Navy’s Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) operates flawlessly in rain, salt spray, and full oceanic conditions. Never mind that magnets do not stop working when wet—a fact confirmed by centuries of physics and every refrigerator on Earth.

This isn’t a gaffe. It’s a worldview.

Desi Lydic eviscerates Trump’s “wet magnets” claim on The Daily Show (November 2025).

“Do You F–k With Magnets?”

On Tuesday’s Daily Show, host Desi Lydic eviscerated the spectacle with surgical precision. “What the f–k are you talking about?” she asked after playing Trump’s speech. “The magnet gets wet. That’s it. It’s a magnet, OK? Not a gremlin.”

Lydic mocked Trump’s impromptu polling of sailors: “Question one: do you promise to protect the Constitution? Question two: do you f–k with magnets?”

Her closing jab—“I guess this is what happens when your parents don’t want to put your pictures on the fridge… all the magnets got wet”—lands because it exposes the childish core of the fantasy. But the joke curdles when you remember: this man could command nuclear codes.

The Silence That Empowers Delusion

As Newsweek and MSN note, this myth dates back to early 2024—and has been repeated without correction by aides, military officials, or allies.

That silence is the real story. When a would-be commander-in-chief dictates naval engineering based on a misunderstanding of basic physics, and no one within his orbit intervenes, they aren’t enabling a slip of the tongue. They’re endorsing a performance in which reality is subordinate to narrative, and expertise is weakness.

This is the theater of power in late-stage empire: not competence, but conviction. Not knowledge, but loyalty. The emperor has been naked a long time. The real question is why so few are willing to say it.

“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who are oppressing them.”
— Assata Shakur

Further Reading

For more on authoritarian performance and the weaponization of ignorance, see our analysis of tankie politics or the revolutionary legacy of Assata Shakur.

This article is original reporting and analysis by Comrade KAS. All views expressed are those of the author.