Trump suggests 'nuking hurricanes' to stop them hitting America – report
According to US news website Axios, the president said in a meeting with top national security and homeland security officials about the threat of hurricanes: “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?”
“They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?”
Quoting unnamed sources who were present at the meeting, Axios report that the response from one official was “We’ll look into this.”
Axios reports that Trump raised the same issue on another occasion with a senior administration official. This conversation was apparently recorded in a 2017 national security council memo which used the term “nuclear” in reference to the conversation.
Axios quoted a senior official who defended Trump’s ability to ask tough questions: “His goal — to keep a catastrophic hurricane from hitting the mainland — is not bad. His objective is not bad.”
Shortly after Trump came to power National Geographic published an article pointing out how frequent the idea of nuking hurricanes has been over the last few decades: “It’s an appealing thought, especially when, during hurricane season, we’re annually reminded of the immense destruction wrought by these storms.
“And it’s probably why, every year for the past six decades, government agencies have received missives from concerned citizens, urging preemptive attacks against hurricanes using nuclear weapons.”
In the article, entitled Nuking Hurricane: The Surprising History of a Really Bad Idea, they point out that the response from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was: “Needless to say, this is not a good idea.”
The White House declined to comment on the Axios report. “We don’t comment on private discussions that the president may or may not have had with his national security team,” it said.
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