Trump Giving Elon Musk the National Medal of Science Cheapens It

Sergey Brin, Jensen Huang and Lisa Su join Musk for a medal Kennedy first gave for work at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The National Medal of Science is supposed to be the prize a scientist's colleagues fight to win for her after a lifetime of discovery. On Thursday, President Trump is set to make it a party favor.

Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su are getting the medal from Trump at a White House summit about super intelligence and innovation, Fox News reported, as did The Hill. I think that cheapens the medal for every working scientist who'll get one after them.

Look at what's being handed over. Congress created the medal in 1959, and the National Science Foundation calls it the highest honor the country gives scientists and engineers. It's meant for "outstanding contributions to knowledge." In more than six decades, 529 people have received it.

The first went to Theodore von Kármán, for his work at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, from President John F. Kennedy. In 1970, Barbara McClintock became the first woman to win it, for plant genetics. That's the company Thursday's honorees are joining.

The medal's worth comes from how it's picked. Under the foundation's rules, a scientist's peers nominate her, each nomination needs three letters of support, and nobody can nominate themselves. A committee of 14 presidential appointees weighs the names, joined by two members who sit there by virtue of their jobs: the head of the White House science policy office and the National Academy of Sciences' own president.

This list reached the public as a cable-news exclusive and a White House spokesperson's word, tied to the administration's "Science: A New Golden Age" summit, The National News Desk reported. Fox News billed it as the first of Trump's presidency.

And it's a familiar guest list. On Sept. 29, Huang and Musk sat with Trump in the East Room for a meeting with AI executives, according to a Getty photo caption the National News Desk ran with its story. Nine days later, they're due back at the White House for medals.

The best defense is the work. SpaceX's reusable rockets are real engineering, and the selection committee's own list of considerations does count "contributions to innovation and industry." That's fifth of seven, behind the impact of a body of work on its field and whether it changed the "development of thought" there.

There's also a medal built for exactly what these companies do. The National Medal of Technology and Innovation is the country's top honor for technological achievement, and the White House is handing it to Michael Dell and Satya Nadella at the same ceremony. The right shelf was in the room. Musk is getting the other one.

A prize like this only means what it signals. Kennedy's first medal told the country what a man at JPL had added to human knowledge. Half of Thursday's science honorees were at the president's table nine days earlier.

Source: foxnews.com, retrieved October 8, 2026. Other sources: nsf.gov, abc3340.com.