Trump ‘floored’ Puerto Rico’s former governor with talk of a nuclear first strike, book claims
Former President Donald Trump assured Puerto Rico’s ex-governor that he was prepared to launch a first strike in the event of nuclear warfare during a tour of the hurricane ravaged island back in 2017, the former governor claims in an upcoming book.
Ricardo Rosselló, now a congressional delegate for the US territory, said he was “floored” by Trump’s comments, which came as they sat in a helicopter surveying damage from Hurricane Maria.
“Nature has a way of coming back,” Trump said as they overlooked the devastation.
“Well, it does until it does not. Who knows with nuclear warfare what will happen,” he continued, according to Rosselló book, “The Reformer’s Dilemma and the Need for a Radical Middle.”
What followed, Rosselló writes, left him “more concerned than anything else in the entire visit.”
“‘But I tell you what…’ He paused for effect. ‘If nuclear war happens, we won’t be second in line pressing the button,’” the delegate recalled Trump telling him.
The then-president’s quip left Rosselló stunned.
“I could not believe what I was hearing,” he writes. “It was surreal. Was he really talking about total annihilation as we flew over the ravaged sights of the island?”
The Trump campaign in a statement defended the 78-year-old presumptive GOP nominee president’s record on foreign policy, noting that he “abhors the idea of nuclear war.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the world was safer and more peaceful than any time in decades,” Trump campaign adviser Steven Cheung told The Post. “President Trump abhors the idea of nuclear war.”
“That’s why his historic diplomacy with North Korea stopped the regime’s nuclear tests and long range missile launches, which resumed after Biden took office. President Trump negotiated historic UN Security Council sanctions on Iran that left the regime weak and broke — until Biden enriched them. And it’s Joe Biden who is leading the world to the precipice of World War 3. President Trump’s top priority will be the safety and security of the American People. He is determined to return the world to peace,” he added.
On the campaign trail, Trump has called nuclear weapons – which he sometimes refers to as the “N-word” – “the single biggest threat” to the world.
During heightened tensions with North Korea in 2018, however, he boasted about having “a Nuclear Button” that is “much bigger & more powerful” than dictator Kim Jong Un’s.
