Trump discussed using nuclear weapon against North Korea in 2017: Report
Misty Severi
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Former President Donald Trump discussed the idea of using a nuclear weapon against North Korea while he was in office in 2017, but suggested he could pin the attack on another country, a new book on Trump’s time in office alleges.
The discussion came during a period of heightened tension between the United States and North Korea, and allegedly alarmed then-Chief of Staff John Kelly, the afterword of the book detailed. The new portion was part of the New York Times‘ Michael Schmidt’s book “Donald Trump v. the United States,” which will go on sale in paperback on Tuesday.
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The new section includes an extensive look at Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019, after serving first as his secretary of homeland security.
During the beginning of Kelly’s two-year stint as Trump’s right hand in 2017, Trump warned that North Korea would be “met with fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before,” according to the book, which was obtained by NBC News. Trump also delivered an address to the United Nations general assembly that same year, where he claimed he would destroy North Korea if it did not stop its military threats.
The former president also used tweets to goad the communist country, even claiming at one point that he had a “larger nuclear button” than leader Kim Jung Un. However, Kelly was more concerned about Trump’s conversations that happened in private.
“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,” the new afterword claimed, according to NBC. “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.”
Kelly attempted to discourage Trump from using a nuclear weapon against North Korea, by highlighting that people would still point at the U.S. if such an attack occurred. Other military leaders also attempted to dissuade Trump, even citing the civilian toll, which allegedly did not sway the former president. Discussions about the economic consequences of such an action swayed Trump temporarily, but he went back to the idea of war with North Korea multiple times.
Schmidt additionally claimed that White House aides were alarmed that Trump would have conversations on unclassified phones, when it was well-known that North Korea sought a spy on the White House. However, there has been no evidence that North Korea was successful in that attempt.
Kelly eventually sold Trump on the idea that he would be the “greatest salesman in the world” if he had a diplomatic relationship with North Korea, rather than as a military threat, Schmidt claimed.
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The book was initially released in 2020, but the new afterword that focuses on Kelly includes dozens of interviews on the background of former Trump officials and other people that worked with Kelly.