This archive report was first published on 26 August 2019.
Published on August 26, 2019, a report by Axios revealed that US President Donald Trump suggested using nuclear bombs to disrupt hurricanes forming off the coast of Africa.
During a hurricane briefing, Trump allegedly asked if it were possible to disrupt hurricanes by dropping a nuclear bomb in the eye of the storm, according to Axios.
Meeting attendees reportedly left the briefing thinking, "What do we do with this?"
While Axios did not specify when this conversation took place, it is reportedly not the first time Trump made such a suggestion.
In 2017, Trump asked a senior official whether the administration should bomb hurricanes to prevent them from making landfall, Axios reported.
However, Trump did not specify that nuclear bombs be used in the 2017 conversation, according to Axios.
The White House declined to comment on the matter, but a senior administration official defended Trump's idea, stating that his "objective is not bad," as reported by Axios.
Trump's suggestion is not new, as a government scientist first proposed the idea in the 1950s under President Dwight Eisenhower, Axios noted.
Despite the idea being repeatedly proposed, scientists agree that it would not work, and the US continues to be pummeled by hurricanes, with devastating consequences.
