Trump "suggested firing nuclear weapons against hurricanes to prevent them from hitting the United States," according to a report

Donald Trump has suggested launching nuclear weapons on hurricanes to prevent them from hitting the United States, according to information published in Washington.

The president reportedly raised the idea of ​​bombarding hurricanes with senior security and national security officials on several occasions since 2017.

"I understood, I understood, why not neutralize them?", Said a source on an American news site. Axios had asked the president at a hurricane briefing at the White House.

The source said the briefer had been "knocked out" while Mr. Trump had hinted that dropping a nuclear bomb in the eye of an off-shore hurricane would disrupt his training.

"People were surprised," the source added. "Once the meeting was over, we thought: what's the f ***? What are we doing with this?

Briefer reportedly told the president that he would "examine" the possibility.

Later, other officials were also informed of the president's remarks, which were recorded in a memorandum of the National Security Council (NSC).

Another memorandum from the 2017 NAC also reportedly detailed Trump's question as to whether hurricanes could be bombarded with conventional weapons to prevent them from hitting the United States.

"His goal – to prevent a catastrophic hurricane from hitting the continent – is not bad," Axios told another senior White House official, informed of the president's remarks. "His goal is not bad."

Far from being a revolutionary, the idea of ​​using nuclear weapons against hurricanes has a remarkably long history.

By the end of the 1950s, scientists and US government agencies had launched proposals to explode nuclear devices to spread large storms.

In 1959, the meteorologist Jack W. Reed suggested that submarines could be used to launch warheads in the eye of a hurricane, one of the many "peaceful" applications that would have been used. he imagined for nuclear weapons.

Meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), however, have less enthusiasm for meteorological weather systems.

"In addition to the fact that it may not even change the storm, this approach ignores the problem that released radioactive fallout would move relatively quickly with the trade winds to affect land areas and cause devastating environmental problems," says NOAA. on his website.

"Needless to say, it's not a good idea."