(BrightPress.org) – It’s almost as if there’s a game being played called “What’s the next outrageous thing Donald Trump allegedly said in the past?” The latest move comes from an upcoming memoir from Ricard Rosselló, the former governor of Puerto Rico.
Rosselló’s book is set to be released on June 25th, and it contains an anecdote about a conversation between Trump and Rosselló when Trump was touring the island territory to survey hurricane damage in 2017. That year, a category 5 hurricane (the most powerful) barreled through the island leaving thousands dead amid the destroyed buildings and infrastructure.
In his book, Rosselló claims that he and Trump were surveying the damage over Puerto Rico in a helicopter. Rosselló says that he remarked that nature “has a way of coming back,” and then Trump mused that it did not come back when nuclear war occurs. At that point, Rosselló claims, Trump said, “If nuclear war happens, we won’t be second in line pressing the button.” The implication is that Trump said the United States would launch nuclear weapons, and thus start a nuclear war, first.
In this passage from the upcoming “The Reformer’s Dilemma,” Rosselló said he was “floored” by Trump’s statement. Rosselló could not believe what he had just heard, he wrote, describing it as “surreal” to hear the then-U.S. President “talking about total annihilation” as they took in the hurricane damage.
Trump’s camp is reacting to the claims in the soon-to-be-released memoir by stating Trump “abhors” the very notion of nuclear war. Spokesman Steven Cheung released a statement highlighting what the campaign calls Trump’s leadership and “historical diplomacy” with communist North Korea. Trump’s parlaying with the hermit nation “stopped the regime’s nuclear tests” and brought a halt to North Korea’s launching of long-range missiles, according to the statement.
There have been no reports yet of a categorical denial of the statement that Rosselló claims Trump made about launching nuclear warheads. Still, much of the mainstream media is reprinting the alleged Trump statement as if it were a proven fact.
Critics of Trump have long said they believe he is too unstable and unpredictable to be trusted with “the nuclear codes.” They point to statements Trump made in 2018 aimed at North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un in which Trump said the U.S. had “much bigger and more powerful” nuclear weapons ready to launch.
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