Claim:
U.S. President Donald Trump said, “Nobody knows what a magnet is.”
Rating:
Context
The president made the comment while discussing how every day products such as vehicles and computers require magnets to operate, and to support his administration’s threat of high tariffs on goods from China — a global leader in rare earth elements, including ones that make magnets. Many social media posts that shared the authentic quote did so without context.
In November 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that U.S. President Donald Trump said, “Nobody knows what a magnet is.”
Social media users on platforms like X shared a video of Trump supposedly making the comment, a clip that appeared to come from Fox News.
(X user @Acyn)
The claim and video also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Reddit (archived). Snopes readers searched our website to find out if Trump actually made the statement.
Trump said, “Nobody knows what a magnet is,” and, “Nobody knows what magnets are,” at least twice on Nov. 10, 2025. He made the statements during an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham and while speaking to reporters in the White House Oval Office. Therefore, social media claims correctly attributed the quote to Trump.
In both instances, Trump made the comment about magnets to support his administration’s threat of high tariffs on goods from China, a global leader in rare earth elements, including those that make magnets.
Many social media posts that shared the authentic by the president did not include context.
China dominates the rare earths industry through its supply of, and ability to refine, rare earths that manufacturers use to make magnets in speakers, computers, wind turbines, electric cars and other products.
During the interview with Ingraham, Trump said the in-question statement while speaking about a deal his administration recently made with China that requires the country to roll back proposed regulations on exporting rare earths.
Trump claimed he was able to use the threat of imposing high tariffs on China to get President Xi Jinping to agree to the deal that allows the U.S. to continue accessing rare earths for production without expensive export controls. Trump said (emphasis ours):
But it’s so — President Xi was willing to do the rare earth thing, that’s magnets. Now, nobody knows what a magnet is. If you don’t have a magnet, you don’t make a car. You don’t make a computer. You don’t make televisions and radios and all the other things — you don’t make anything. It’s a 30-year effort to monopolize a very important thing. Now, within two years, we’ll have magnets, all the magnets we want, but we don’t. Because of tariffs, I called, I said, “Listen, here’s the story. You’re going to play the magnet. I’m going to play the tariff on you.” And for national security purposes, I raised the tariff by 100% over and above what they were paying, which was 55. So, he was at 155%. Within 10 minutes, I got a call, “We’d like to meet,” and we settled it out and we made a wonderful deal, great deal for our country.
The president said a similar thing while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on the same day. According to a White House livestream from the swearing in of Sergio Gor, Trump’s newly appointed ambassador to India, Trump said (emphasis ours):
If China refused to give magnets because they have a monopoly on magnets because they were allowed to — it happened over a 32-year period — there wouldn’t be a car made in the entire world, there wouldn’t be a radio, there wouldn’t be a television, there wouldn’t be internet, there wouldn’t be anything because magnets are such a part — Now, nobody knows what magnets are and not overly sophisticated, but to build a magnet system would take two years. So, if I weren’t able to say to China, “Look, if you’re going to do that to us, we’re going to charge you 158% tariff.” It was 100% on top of 58%. And China called up immediately said, “We will make peace.” And we made peace. We made a great deal.
Snopes reached out to the White House press office with a request for it to elaborate on the president’s statements and await a reply.
During a speech in front of American service members in Tokyo in October 2025, Trump appeared to suggest that water could disable magnets, according to a White House video.
Trump previously incorrectly claimed that water could disable magnets during a campaign event in Iowa in January 2024, according to a video of the event.
Snopes previously investigated rumors that the Trump administration is sending each American $2,000 payments from tariffs revenue and Trump’s tariffs fueled inflation in the U.S.
Sources
“Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Strikes Deal on Economic and Trade Relations with China.” The White House, 1 Nov. 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/11/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-strikes-deal-on-economic-and-trade-relations-with-china/.
Feng, Emily. “How China Came to Rule the World of Rare Earth Elements.” NPR, 23 July 2025. Interview Highlights. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2025/07/23/nx-s1-5475137/china-rare-earth-elements.
Fox News. “Trump Pulls Back Curtain on Relationship with Xi Jinping.” YouTube, 10 Nov. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7juiv6qrYds&t=639s.
“How Magnets Work.” HowStuffWorks, 1 Jan. 1970, https://science.howstuffworks.com/magnet.htm.
Roll Call Factbase Videos. “Speech: Donald Trump Holds a Campaign Rally in Mason City, Iowa – January 5, 2024.” YouTube, 5 Jan. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvyrHSBaFCk.
The White House. “President Trump Participates in a Swearing-in Ceremony for the Ambassador to the Republic of India.” YouTube, 10 Nov. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/live/gd4xJwjyW6w?t=1490s.
———. “President Trump Participates in a Troop Visit and Remarks on the USS George Washington.” YouTube, 28 Oct. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/live/ajBshzWIVtg?t=2041s.
“What Are ‘rare Earths’ Used For?” BBC News, 13 Mar. 2012. World. www.bbc.co.uk, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17357863.
