Trump honors Elon Musk with top science medal and hails him as the new-age 'Thomas Edison'

Here is President Trump's full speech honoring @elonmusk today during the White House Science & Tech Innovation Summit. Full transcript: "First, we honor an industrial titan, a brilliant engineer, and one of the greatest technology founders to ever live. His name is Elon Musk. Quite honestly, there's nobody like him. Few Americans in history have done more to advance America’s national interests than Elon. In one field after another, his genius and determination have made science fiction into reality. Elon founded SpaceX with his life savings in 2002 and created the first privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit in the face of vanishingly impossible odds. Nobody thought it was possible to do the things he's doing. And in so many different ways, SpaceX saved NASA from relying on foreign nations to send our astronauts into space. And I want to congratulate SpaceX on the safe return of Crew-12 from the International Space Station just a few hours ago. National treasure. Under Elon's leadership, SpaceX has also developed Starship, the largest rocket in history, which is caught out of thin air and for rapid reuse. And it's the first time anyone's ever seen anything quite like it. They also created the largest ever communications satellite network, Starlink. And in North Carolina, I will tell you personally, because I was involved, we had a hurricane, one of the great water hurricanes of all time, delivered more water than at any time that we can remember on record. It saved hundreds of lives by calling Elon. I remember the governor said, sir, is there any way—do you know a man named Elon Musk? I said, I happen to know him, yes. We need Starlink because the water was so deep that many islands were created and the people had no way of getting off those islands and they had no communication. And they said, we cannot get anybody to help us. And I called up Elon and it was like impossible to get this equipment. And he had it there in a matter of hours and saved hundreds of lives. Saved hundreds of lives in North Carolina. So I never forgot that experience. It was a terrible time. And the job he did, and he acted so fast. Everybody said they were impossible to get. So thank you, Elon, for that very special moment. In addition, Elon created Tesla, the first successful new car manufacturer in over 75 years, producing the first commercially viable electric cars with the first consumer self-driving technology. And interestingly, when you mentioned Tesla, my uncle, Dr. John Trump, was commissioned by the United States government to do a report on Nikola Tesla. They wanted to know, was he real or not real? Was he a true genius or not? My uncle, after a fairly short period of time, determined that he was a true and great genius and that he was real in every single way. Otherwise, you'd have to change the name of the car company. You wouldn't want to be a— see, now, if I did the report, Elon, I might say, he wasn't that good. But my uncle was a different kind of a person than I am. And he gave Tesla the highest report. He said he was a true great genius. So very nice. Through Neuralink, Elon is also restoring sight, speech, and motion to those who cannot see, talk, or move. And he turned SpaceX AI into one of the world's leaders in superintelligence. Elon is our modern-day Thomas Edison. And Elon, I want to congratulate you. You're my friend and all of that. But you are a very, very special guy. Thank you very much, and congratulations, Elon. Thank you."

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) October 8, 2026

.@POTUS: "My uncle, Dr. John Trump, was a great scientist and professor at MIT for 52 years... For his achievements in the production and use of radiation in medical and industrial applications, Dr. John Trump was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Ronald Reagan in 1983."

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 8, 2026