Trump Suggested Nuclear Attack On North Korea, Then Blaming Another Country

In his first year in office, then-President Donald Trump suggested attacking North Korea with a nuclear bomb, according to a new afterword of a book by New York Times journalist Michael Schmidt, Donald Trump v. the United States.

The comments were allegedly made behind closed doors in a 2017 meeting with then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

Trump at the time routinely took to Twitter to call North Korean leader Kim Jung Un “Little Rocket Man.”

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“What scared Kelly even more than the tweets was the fact that behind closed doors in the Oval Office, Trump continued to talk as if he wanted to go to war. He cavalierly discussed the idea of using a nuclear weapon against North Korea, saying that if he took such an action, the administration could blame someone else for it to absolve itself of responsibility,” Schmidt writes.

According to the book, Kelly attempted to dissuade Trump from making such a brash move. He said that the international community would ultimately find out it was the U.S. and that the move would spark mass casualties.

“North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’ Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” Trump tweeted back in 2018.

Eventually, Trump made amends with the North Korean leader, saying the two “fell in love.”

Shmidt’s book was first released in 2020. The paperback version with the new afterword is set to be released next week.