EXCLUSIVE: When Donald Trump talks of nuclear testing, it’s hard not to imagine a vision of a giant orange baby juggling with a kitchen knife… with experts pointing to the past as an example
Donald Trump’s latest urge to dominate the global spotlight sees the Republican frothing about resuming nuclear testing in the US, something the country hasn’t done for over three decades.
The US President, 79, broadcasted this announcement on social media just before going to see Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday in South Korea.
It has marked a significant shift in US policy – despite the country’s military routinely testing its missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, there hasn’t been a detonation since 1992 in Nevada due to a test ban…something around 100 days away from ending.
“Because of other countries testing programmes, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,” he stated in a post on Truth Social. “That process will begin immediately.”
Republicans did not promptly respond to queries seeking further details, and Trump sidestepped a reporter’s question about his post during his face-to-face meeting with Xi in Busan
Speaking to the Daily Star, Professor at Buckingham University Anthony Glees dubbed the Orange Manbaby “ignorant”, and slated his use of language in the announcement.
“You can’t simply resume nuclear testing,” the security expert told us. “It’s not clear that [Trump] knows the difference between a delivery system for a nuclear weapon, and a nuclear weapon.”
He added: “Is he saying that they will test whether a nuclear explosion can be made in Nevada – or is he testing the ballistic missiles that the US has to deliver to nuclear warheads. They are two entirely different things.”
Glees then pointed out Trump had eerily mentioned “nuclear tests…that means detonation.”
“In the early 1950s the Americans tested H-bombs. The 1 November 1952, Atoll in the Pacific it blew an 80 metre deep hole in the ocean that was a mile wide and it almost tilted the earth from its axis.”
And because that went ‘so well’, the US did it again in 1954. The Castle Bravo crater left by US testing created a mushroom cloud of 40 kilometres and vaporised its entire test island.
Given the country’s previous track record and the looming deadline of the test ban – it’s hard not to think of Trump as a massive orange (man) baby juggling a kitchen knife when he talks of nuclear testing.
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