Trump brags about his science knowledge because of his 'super genius uncle' who was an MIT professor

President Trump on Friday baffled observers while touring the Centers for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta, where he bragged that he had a predisposition toward science because of his ‘super genius’ uncle.

‘You know my Uncle was a great — he was at MIT,’ the president said while standing next to health officials who are working to contain the outbreak of coronavirus.

‘He taught at MIT for a record number of years. He was a great super genius, Dr. John Trump.’

John G. Trump was an accomplished electrical engineer who went on to become a professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

John Trump, who died in 1985 at the age of 77, was the brother of Fred Trump, who founded and built the Trump real estate empire throughout New York.

He was noted for developing rotational radiation therapy, which is used to treat malignant cancers.

John Trump was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Ronald Reagan.

President Trump is seen above holding up a picture while touring the Centers for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta on Friday. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is seen left. CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield is seen second from right. Associate Director for Laboratory Science and Safety Steve Monroe is seen far right

Trump, who is holding up a picture of the coronavirus, bragged on Friday that he could have been a doctor

Trump says his 'natural talent' for science is thanks to his late 'super genius' uncle, John G. Trump (seen in the above undated file photo), who was a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

His nephew, the president, spoke of his purported grasp of science on Friday, saying: ‘I like this stuff. I really get it.

‘People are surprised that I understand it.

'Every one of these doctors said: "How do you know so much about this?"

Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.'

On social media, the reaction to Trump’s comments was harsh.

One Twitter user wrote: ‘The guy who looked into the sun during a solar eclipse thinks he could have been a research scientist?’

That was a reference to the president looking up at the total eclipse of the sun - the first time in more than 40 years that Americans could see one - in August 2017.

Another Twitter user posted a meme showing Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s 16th president, putting his head in his hand.

Another Twitter user commented: ‘Each clip is worse than the previous one. I can’t take it anymore.’

One Twitter user urged the president to follow his passion for science and pursue a new career, writing: ‘It's not too late Donnie. Resign right now and apply to MIT!

One Twitter user urged the president to follow his passion for science and pursue a new career, writing: ‘It's not too late Donnie. Resign right now and apply to MIT! Maybe you will get the Nobel Prize!!!!!!’

Another Twitter user wrote: ‘I am so tired of having a lying, malignant narcissist for a President. But even more than that, I’m SICK of people pandering to him and acting like his behavior is normal’

Another Twitter user urged the mainstream media to ‘stop acting like this is normal!’ ‘He’s a sick man and it’s time to stop normalizing him!’

Another Twitter user posted a meme showing Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s 16th president, putting his head in his hand

‘Maybe you will get the Nobel Prize!!!!!!’

Another Twitter user urged the mainstream media to ‘stop acting like this is normal!’

‘He’s a sick man and it’s time to stop normalizing him!’

Another Twitter user wrote: ‘I am so tired of having a lying, malignant narcissist for a President.

‘But even more than that, I’m SICK of people pandering to him and acting like his behavior is normal.’

The comments about his uncle were one of several made by the president that had people scratching their heads.

Trump also called Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington State, a ‘snake’.

He also said he'd prefer that people exposed to the virus on a cruise ship that is currently in the waters off San Francisco be left aboard so they wouldn't be added to the count for the nation's total number of infections.

Trump, wearing his ‘Keep America Great’ campaign hat while discussing the global worry, tried once more to quell growing alarm about the spread of the virus in America.

But he quickly ventured into side matters and political squabbles.

This isn’t the first time that Trump has used his uncle’s name to brag about his knowledge of scientific matters.

In October 2018, the president gave an interview to reporters in the Oval Office during which he boasted of a ‘natural instinct for science.’

Trump was asked at the time about his views on climate change.

Specifically, he was referred to a report issued by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which stated that the world has 12 years to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degree Celsius.

That was a reference to the president looking up at the total eclipse of the sun - the first time in more than 40 years that Americans could see one - in August 2017

Failure to do so puts the globe at greater peril, significantly increasing the risk of devastating floods, droughts, and fires that will affect hundreds of millions of people, the report’s authors say.

The report was written jointly by a group of 91 scientists from 40 countries who based their analyses on more than 6,000 scientific studies.

But Trump, who has said he thought climate change was ‘a hoax,’ refused to budge.

‘You have scientists on both sides of [climate change],’ Trump told the AP.

‘My uncle was a great professor at MIT for many years: Dr. John Trump. And I didn’t talk to him about this particular subject, but I have a natural instinct for science, and I will say that you have scientists on both sides of the picture.’

Trump also said he was 'truly an environmentalist' and that he agreed the climate was changing, but that it also 'goes back and forth, back and forth.'