The basic background is as follows, as reported by NBC News: Trump awards Musk and other tech titans National Medals of Science.
President Donald Trump joined some of America’s most powerful tech leaders Thursday at a summit the White House billed as the start of a “golden age” of American science.
Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Dell founder Michael Dell gathered with Trump and a host of administration officials and scientific luminaries for the Science: A New Golden Age Summit at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
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Trump awarded the National Medal of Science to Musk, Brin, Huang and Su. He awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Nadella and Dell.
Ok, so all this feels more like Trump giving prizes to his new friends to impress them more than anything else, but that is pretty much how any accolades doled out by this administration feel.
Two things got me to comment on this event.
First is the gauche backdrop and the corny name. It really does look like AI generated the image, and given the backdrop, I feel like this guy should have been the MC:
I can’t look at the giant gold SCIENCE and not hear him.
Plus, if you look at the report that goes along with the “summit,” it puts one in mind of films those of us of a certain age watched in middle school:
It is made all the better when one clicks through to see that the background is animated. Someone wanted the PowerPoint to be extra fancy!
But the thing that really grabbed my attention was how they managed to make the thing about Trump (beyond just all the golden gold). Apparently, his uncle (you know, the really smart one who worked at MIT!) was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Science by Reagan. They found it, dusted it off, framed it, and gave it to Trump.
I guess he can put it on his shelf with his FIFA Peace Prize and María Corina Machado’s Nobel.
Mediate has a full video of the presentation, which included a video tribute to Uncle Trump.
No doubt, Trump felt like a Very Special Boy.
Meanwhile, if you need a palate cleanser:
