Breanna Robinson
May 11, 2022
Video
Former President Donald Trump bizarrely wanted to know if China was using a "hurricane gun" on the US while he was in office.
In a report from Rolling Stone, two former senior administration officials and a third person briefed on the matter said that near the beginning of Trump's time in office, he repeatedly inquired about it.
He also wondered if it would "constitute an act of war by a foreign power, and could the US retaliate militarily?"
"It was almost too stupid for words. I did not get the sense that he was joking at all," said a former Trump official closely familiar with Trump's questions.
The sources who spoke with the outlet under the pretense that they remain anonymous also said that Trump began to interrogate national-security officials and other staffers about the alleged weapon during the first year of his presidency. His question would also pop up occasionally until a least 2018.
Some circles that were in the upper echelon ranks of Trump's world also said that his inquiry became mockable and known as the "hurricane gun" thing.
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"I was present [once] when he asked if China 'made' hurricanes to send to us," another former senior official said.
"Trump "wanted to know if the technology existed…I kept it together until I got back to my office… I do not know where the [then-]president would have heard about that… He was asking about it around the time, maybe a little before, he asked people about nuking hurricanes," they continued.
This blatantly silly question from Trump, which wasn't previously reported, was just one instance in his administration that ran with absurd conspiracy theories including th 2020 presidential election being stolen from him.
Last week, Mark Esper, Trump's former Secretary of Defense, wrote in his new memoir, A Sacred Oath, that the former commander in chief wanted to attack Mexico with missiles, although there was peace between the two nations. He then wanted to try and place the blame on another country.
Trump's "hurricane gun" also happens to add to the list of strange beliefs that the former president has not only about science in its entirety — which he dubbed a hoax "created by and for the Chinese" — but hurricanes particularly.
In the 2019 hurricane season, Trump insisted on telling the public that Hurricane Dorian was headed towards Alabama, although there was no prediction.
Trump then showed up with a map that appeared to be edited to show a projection of the storm hitting Alabama.
This incident was called Sharpiegate and resulted in an inspector general's report that said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had falsely backed up Trump's claim about the hurricane's path due to pressures from the White House.
Elsewhere, right-wing believers invested in QAnon conspiracy theories also argued that President Joe Biden used a Chinese-made weather weapon to send freezing weather that caused damage to the Texas power lines as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) went away to Cancun, Mexico.Indy100 reached out to the Office of Donald Trump for comment.
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