Trump suggested firing nuclear weapons to stop hurricanes because that’s where we are at

Donald Trump suggested firing nuclear weapons into hurricanes to prevent them hitting the US, it has emerged from reports in Washington.

The US president is said to have suggested the idea of bombing hurricanes with senior Homeland Security and national security officials on a number of occasions, going back as far as 2017.

One source told the US news website Axios that during one meeting, Trump asked: “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?”

“The people were astonished,” one source said. “After the meeting ended, we thought, ‘what the f***? What do we do with this?”

The briefer reportedly told the president they would “look into” the possibility.

The president’s comments were recorded in a National Security Council (NSC) memorandum and in another, from 2017, it details how the US president asked whether hurricanes could be bombed with conventional weapons.

A senior White House official, who had been briefed on the president’s comments told Axios: “His objective is not bad.”

Bombing…a hurricane?

People online couldn’t decide which reaction was most appropriate; fear, humour, or unadulterated shock.

There were others who thought Trump's comments were a joke and swiftly experienced the horror of truth

And there are those who, quite frankly, cannot.

FYI, you cannot bomb a hurricane.

According to the Hurricane Research Division of the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, nuking a hurricane would cause catastrophic problems.

During each hurricane season, there always appear suggestions that one should simply use nuclear weapons to try and destroy the storms. 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.

More: Twitter users have a field day after Trump inspires #IHerebyOrder

More: Trump's 'large' union crowd at Shell told they wouldn't get paid