WASHINGTON — He prefers Sharpies over email. His aides cart around cardboard boxes of work papers — not laptops — for him to sift through on Air Force One. On pressing technology matters, including drones at the border, clean energy and, most recently, the evolution of airplane engineering, he prefers a nonscientific approach.

In short, President Trump often operates on the theory that older is better.

“Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday, sharing his views on the still-unconfirmed cause of an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash last weekend that killed all 157 people on board. “Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT. I see it all the time in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further, when often old and simpler is far better.”

At a time when experts are citing a serious need to bolster the nation’s infrastructure and science initiatives to remain globally competitive, Mr. Trump has long used partisan language to encourage his supporters to follow him in embracing a 1950s Rockwellian approach to technology.

In his continuing crusade to build a wall along the country’s southwestern border, for instance, Mr. Trump dismissed the idea of drones to secure the border. He wanted a wall, an ancient technology he has said never fails, much like its Mesopotamian cousin, the wheel.