Can you nuke a storm out of existence? Can you redirect a swirling cyclone of wind and rain with a Sharpie? Can you shoot a hurricane out of a gun and throughout the planet? These are the questions of our time, and thank god we have now Donald Trump to ask them.

Former President Trump has a historical past with hurricanes. Specifically, a historical past of profoundly misunderstanding the character of extreme storms. In one of the crucial bonkers illustrations of his confusion thus far, whereas nonetheless in workplace, he repeatedly requested nationwide safety officers if China was manufacturing hurricanes utilizing some type of weapon and launching them on the U.S., in response to three former White House employees, as simply now reported by Rolling Stone.

Spoiler alert: No, they’re not.

“It was almost too stupid for words,” mentioned a former Trump official to Rolling Stone. “I did not get the sense he was joking at all.”

He began asking concerning the theoretical cross-planet-hurricane-shooter early on in his presidency, and saved inquiring about it so steadily for greater than a 12 months, that it turned a operating gag often called the “Hurricane Gun,” factor, in response to Rolling Stone.

From Rolling Stone:

“I was present [once] when he asked if China ‘made’ hurricanes to send to us,” mentioned the opposite former senior official. Trump “wanted to know if the technology existed. One guy in the room responded, ‘Not to the best of my knowledge, sir.’ I kept it together until I got back to my office… I do not know where the [then-]president would have heard about that… He was asking about it around the time, maybe a little before, he asked people about nuking hurricanes.”

G/O Media might get a fee

Save $70

Apple AirPods Max

Experience Next-Level Sound
Spatial audio with dynamic head monitoring gives theater-like sound that surrounds you

Though the reveal of this explicit Trump conspiracy concept about China and hurricanes is new information, it’s removed from the primary completely wild factor he’s mentioned relating to the Asian nation or extreme climate. In reality, he’s even claimed that the idea of local weather change is a hoax invented by China. Although, he later mentioned that remark was a joke.

In 2019, the previous chief of the free world additionally reportedly urged that we assault hurricanes with nuclear bombs—presumably to cease the storms. (In his protection, this was earnestly one thing under consideration within the Sixties, however is a actually, actually dangerous concept that NOAA debunks instantly on their website.)

And in fact, there was Sharpie-gate and the subsequent fall-out. In which, Trump adamantly and erroneously claimed 2019’s Hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama—going as far as to alter a NOAA forecast map with a everlasting marker to show his level. Somehow although, drawing the prediction didn’t make it a actuality.

Combine this with all the badger details Trump desperately needed from Reince Priebus, his former chief of employees, and it’s changing into ever clearer that actually, Trump is only a curious man with lots he needs to study concerning the pure world. In a grade faculty biology class, questions like ‘are [badgers] mean to people,’ what do they eat, how do they ‘work,’ and ‘are hurricanes man-made by a mysterious, foreign weapon’ could be welcome examples of sophistication participation and engagement. So, who’re we to stymie this grownup man’s schooling?