Did Donald Trump disclose secret US nuclear weapon in interview?
- President boasted to journalist Bob Woodward about system ‘even Russia and China don’t know about’, appearing to disclose top secret defence information
- Comments have sent military analysts worldwide scrambling to figure out what weapon Trump was talking about
Bob Woodward’s explosive new book on US President Donald Trump has sent military analysts worldwide scrambling over a boast Trump made to the veteran Washington journalist of a potentially nuclear weapons system that “nobody’s ever had.”
Trump appeared to disclose top-secret defence information in one of 17 on-the-record interviews he gave for Woodward’s just-released book Rage, about the US leader.
Trump says his government has built a weapon system that no one else, not even the leaders of Russia and China, knows about, and seems to say it is “nuclear”.
Such a revelation, if true, could shake up great power politics and inflame the arms race.
00:52
China’s DF-26 ballistic missile drill sends ‘clear message’ to the U.S.
But the 54-word audio interview clip from December 5, 2019 that Woodward released with the book obfuscates as much as it exposes, mainly because when saying “nuclear” Trump breaks off mid-word, as if he is correcting himself, and then changes to “a weapons system”.