Following substantial backlash on Twitter, President Trump responded to a report that he suggested nuking hurricanes, calling it “ridiculous” in a Monday morning tweet.
“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!” he tweeted.
Axios’ Jonathan Swan and Margaret Talev responded on his own Twitter accounts, with Swan writing, “I stand by every word in the story. He said this in at least two meetings during the first year and a bit of the presidency, and one of the conversations was memorialized.”
Talev simply tweeted, “We stand by our reporting.”
In a second tweet, Swan added, “Not to mention that we gave the White House press team full visibility of everything we were reporting nine hours before publication. We published their statement in the story.”
Trump has floated the idea of using nuclear bombs to weaken hurricanes before they reach U.S. land, according to the Sunday report, which prompted many on social media to note that it sounds a whole lot like a plotline from the “Sharknado” sci-fi comedy film series.
“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 told Axios, paraphrasing the POTUS’ remarks.
“You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting. People were astonished,” the source told Axios. “After the meeting ended, we thought, ‘What the f–? What do we do with this?’”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.