Tag: hurricanes

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Trump Has ‘Never Heard Of Cat 5 Hurricanes; Four Have Hit US During His Presidency

Donald Trump, during a briefing on Category 5 Hurricane Dorian, shared this word salad of epic proportions:

“All we know is that it’s possibly the biggest. I’m not sure I’ve even heard of a category 5, I knew it existed. And I’ve seen some category 4s. I don’t even think I’ve heard the term other than I know it it’s there and it’s the ultimate and that’s what we have, unfortunately.”

This is at least the fourth time Trump has said he’s never heard of category 5 hurricanes, most recently in May of this year. This is the fourth Category 5 hurricane to strike the United States during his presidency: Irma, Maria, Michael, Dorian.

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Trump Has Suggested Nuking Hurricanes

Axios is reporting that Donald Trump (above) has suggested on more than one occasion to national security officials that the U.S. bomb hurricanes with nuclear weapons.

During one hurricane briefing at the White House, Trump said, “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?” according to one source who was there.

“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?” the source added, paraphrasing the president’s remarks.

Asked how the briefer reacted, the source recalled he said something to the effect of, “Sir, we’ll look into that.”

Trump replied by asking incredulously how many hurricanes the U.S. could handle and reiterating his suggestion that the government intervene before they make landfall.

The briefer “was knocked back on his heels,” the source in the room added. “You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting. People were astonished. After the meeting ended, we thought, ‘What the f—? What do we do with this?'”

Axios’s Jonathan Swan notes the concept of bombing hurricanes isn’t a ‘Trump original,’ as the question has been raised before going back as far as the Eisenhower administration. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have published a fact sheet which addresses the flawed idea. One issue the researchers mention, among many, is radiation fallout. From the fact sheet: “Apart from the fact that this might not even alter the storm, this approach neglects the problem that the released radioactive fallout would fairly quickly move with the tradewinds to affect land areas and cause devastating environmental problems.” The Trumpster denied suggesting such things it on Twitter, so that pretty much confirms he said it. https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1165918301932916736?s=21

(lead image: public domain/White House Flickr stream)