FACT CHECK: No, Trump Did Not Refer To Nikola Tesla As A ‘Modern-Day Isaac Neutron’

A viral video shared on Instagram claims President Donald Trump purportedly referred to Serbian-American scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla as a “modern-day Isaac Neutron.”

Verdict: False

There is no evidence suggesting Trump made the purported remark. Both Lead Stories and Snopes debunked the claim, indicating the video’s audio has been generated with artificial intelligence (AI). An AI expert denied the audio’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.

Fact Check:

Trump will attend a board meeting at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on March 17, according to Reuters. Trump became chair of the center last month, the outlet reported.

The Instagram video, which has received over 200,000 likes as of writing, claims Trump purportedly referred to Tesla as a “modern-day Isaac Neutron.”

“It’s fantastic, fantastic. He was a smart guy, you know, Tesla, first the light bulb, and now this, he was like a modern-day Isaac Neutron. It’s remarkable, really,” Trump appears to say, according to the video’s audio. “What [did] he say?” the video’s caption reads.

The purported remark mistakenly uses the name “Isaac Neutron” in place of 17th-century English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton.

The claim is false. Check Your Fact did not find any reference to the claim on Trump’s personal or government X accounts, his TRUTH Social account, or his verified social media accounts. Likewise, the purported remark does not appear on the White House’s website or its verified X account @WhiteHouse.

Check Your Fact also conducted a scan using “Deepware,” a website used to detect AI-generated content and “deepfakes,” but the results were inconclusive.

In addition, Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to support the claim. Actually, the opposite is true. Both Lead Stories and Snopes debunked the claim, indicating the video’s audio is AI-generated. According to Lead Stories, the claim originated via TikTok and was shared on X by a user who “describes their account as satire.” (RELATED: Claim That Elon Musk And DOGE Will Audit Congress By ‘Direct Order Of The President’ Is Satire)

Furthermore, Dr. Walter Scheirer, an AI expert at the University of Notre Dame, denied the audio’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.

“The audio track of this video is likely AI-generated or has been edited in a misleading way. The track has an unnatural cadence, lacking the pauses and intonation that are characteristic of Trump. Further, the provenance of this video is suspicious. It was posted by an account on Instagram that focuses on partisan politics and anti-Elon Musk content. The video is not being covered by professional news outlets in a serious manner,” Scheirer said.

Check Your Fact has contacted the White House for comment.