Donald Trump's Hurricane Nuke

About

Donald Trump's Hurricane Nuke refers to a series of jokes and memes about an alleged suggestion that United States President Donald Trump made to advisors about using nuclear weapons to stop hurricanes. President Trump has since denied the report.

Origin

On August 25th, 2019, the news outlet Axios^[1] reported that President Trump had suggested using nuclear weapons to stop hurricanes from making contact with the United States. They wrote:

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."

Axios notes that Trump did not invent this idea; it had existed since the Eisenhower administration. However, the idea has been debunked by science. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration^[2] published a fact sheet on the topic. It reads:

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. Needless to say, this is not a good idea.

Spread

Following the report's release, various people online began commenting on Trump's alleged suggestion. Senator Kamala Harris tweeted^[3] the article with the caption "Dude's gotta go." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 20,000 likes and 4,500 retweets (shown below, left).

Author Molly Jong-Fast tweeted,^[4] "We’re all going to die." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 1,500 likes and 385 retweets (shown below, center).

Others just shared Trump-related memes about the hurricane nuke. Twitter^[5] user @NumbersMuncher shared a variation of Trump Yelling at Lawn-mowing Boy (shown below, right).

The following day, Trump responded to the reports and denied their accuracy. He wrote,^[6] "The story by Axios that President Trump wanted to blow up large hurricanes with nuclear weapons prior to reaching shore is ridiculous. I never said this. Just more FAKE NEWS!" The tweet received more than 60,000 likes and 15,000 retweets in 24 hours (shown below).

Several media outlets covered the story and reaction, including Uproxx,^[7] The Daily Dot, ^[8] Esquire,^[9] Vanity Fair,^[10] CNN^[11] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References