Then-President Donald Trump surprised then-Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló in 2017 with a boast about how America wouldn’t grasp round if it got here to launching nuclear weapons at an adversary, Rosselló remembers in his new memoir.
In “The Reformer’s Dilemma,” Rosselló remembers Trump telling him throughout a helicopter journey over areas of the island that had been hit by the monster Hurricane Maria that “nature has a way of coming back,” till it doesn’t.
The now-presumptive GOP presidential nominee introduced up the unknowns of the aftermath of nuclear warfare and mentioned what Rosselló described as “the one thing that made me more concerned than anything else in the entire visit,” per excerpts obtained by The Hill.
Trump mentioned that “if nuclear war happens, we won’t be second in line pressing the button,” Rosselló reportedly wrote within the e book due out Tuesday.
“This statement floored me,” Rosselló wrote, in accordance with The Hill. “I could not believe what I was hearing. It was surreal. Was he really talking about total annihilation as we flew over the ravaged sights of the island?”
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In Rosselló’s e book, the previous governor additionally addressed Trump’s tossing of paper towels to a crowd throughout the identical journey.
“The image plastered in history was one that demonstrates disdain and repulsion for the people,” he mentioned, per The Hill. “Was it dumb and incredibly thoughtless? Yes. The president should have known better. But that does not detract from the true story: The media narrative got carried away, which is happening more often than not in our political culture.”
Following his go to, Trump repeatedly attacked the island on social media.
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Trump ramped up spending on America’s nuclear arsenal throughout his administration and incessantly warned of deploying nukes, akin to along with his “Little Rocket Man” taunts of his now-ally Kim Jong Un, the despotic chief of North Korea.
Washington Publish reporters Robert Costa and Bob Woodward wrote of their 2021 e book “Peril” that Mark Milley, the then-chair of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, was compelled to guarantee then-Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) after the Jan. 6, 2021, rebellion that “the nuclear triggers are secure” and that “the president alone can order the use of nuclear weapons” however “doesn’t make the decision alone” as a result of they really must be launched by a number of folks.
Rosselló resigned from his function of governing the U.S. territory in 2019 following mass protests amid allegations of corruption and the fallout from the “Chatgate” scandal.
