Is it possible to nuke a storm out of existence? Can you use a Sharpie to change the direction of the wind and rain? Can you shoot a storm out of a gun? Thank god we have Donald Trump to ask these questions. Trump had a history with hurricanes. There is a history of misunderstanding the nature of storms. According to three former White House staff, he asked national security officials if China was manufacturing hurricanes using a weapon and launching them at the U.S., in one of the most crazy illustrations of his confusion to date.
They're not.
It was almost too stupid for him to say it.
He started asking about the theoretical cross-planet-hurricane-shooter early on in his presidency, and kept inquiring about it for more than a year.
From Rolling Stone.
“I was present [once] when he asked if China ‘made’ hurricanes to send to us,” said the other former senior official. Trump “wanted to know if the technology existed. One guy in the room responded, ‘Not to the best of my knowledge, sir.’ 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.”
The revelation of a Trump conspiracy theory about China and hurricanes is new, but it's not the first wild thing he's said about the Asian nation. He claimed that the concept of climate change is a hoax. He later said that the comment was a joke.
The former leader of the free world suggested that we attack hurricanes with nuclear bombs to stop them. In his defense, this was an idea that was under consideration in the 1960s, but is now a bad idea that the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration debunks on their website.
There was Sharpie-gate and the fall-out. Trump went so far as to alter a forecast map with a permanent marker to prove his point, after he wrongly claimed that Hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama. Drawing the prediction didn't make it a reality.
It is becoming clear that Trump is just a curious guy with a lot he wants to learn about the natural world. In a grade school biology class, there are questions about badgers and hurricanes. Who are we to stop this man's education?
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