Did Donald Trump accidentally threaten nuclear war out of a penchant for hyperbole?: Analysis

WASHINGTON—In 2012, when Donald Trump was a celebrity businessman, he wrote on Twitter: “Price of corn has jumped over 50%. This will cause a jump in food prices perhaps beyond what we've ever seen.”

Four years later, when he was running for president, he told the New York Times that China was building, in the South China Sea, “a military fortress the likes of which perhaps the world has not seen.”

The expression popped out of his mouth again after he won the election. In December, Trump told supporters that they had created “a grassroots movement the likes of which the world has never seen before.”

Experts believe Kim Jong Un is rational, not mad, and that he wants to avoid nuclear war. But they have long feared that Kim might be provoked by loose Trump language into miscalculating, launching a strike because he thought Trump meant precisely what he said.  (Wong Maye-E, Pablo Martinez Mons / The Associated Press File Photos)  

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Trump responded, stern, at his golf club in New Jersey. “He has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said they will be met with fire and fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

Without the “like the world has never seen,” Trump’s remarks about “fire and fury” could conceivably have been taken to mean any kind of military strike. With the “like the world has never seen,” the comments are an unmistakable threat of nuclear annihilation.

It is possible that Trump intended to make just such a nuclear threat. He has, after all, promised to eradicate North Korea’s nuclear threat “one way or the other.”

But it is also possible that the president bumbled into the threat because he did not understand the ramifications of a favourite phrase he had in his head.

Trump on Tuesday vowed to launch “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if North Korea does not stop threatening the U.S. He made the alarming comments from the unusual setting of his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. — the plaques on the wall list holes in one made at the club.  (AL DRAGO/ The New York Times)  

Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump

Trump says North Korea will be met with ‘fire and the fury like the world has never seen’ if it doesn’t stop threatening the U.S.sanctions

Ever wonder how Trump might handle a crisis? North Korea may give him one sooner than previously thought: Analysis

North Korea threatens retaliation against the U.S. after UN imposes tough

Did Donald Trump accidentally threaten nuclear war out of a penchant for hyperbole?: Analysis

By Daniel DaleWashington Bureau, Tues., Aug. 8, 2017, https://www.thestar.com/news/w...erbole-analysis.html

 
“I don’t think (Trump is) brave enough to start a war with the North Koreans. But he’s dumb enough to talk like he might. And the fear I have is he’ll say something that the North Koreans will interpret as a sign that an attack is coming, and they’ll overreact,” Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, told the Star in April.

As usual, there is an old Trump tweet that can be read as foretelling the current situation.

“Be prepared, there is a small chance that our horrendous leadership could unknowingly lead us into World War III,” he wrote in 2013.

While there are indeed issues to be addressed on this specific situation, Trump needs to tone done his statements.

He's trying to live up to his campaign promises and playing big bully to scare lil boy Kim Jong. 

What kind of nonsense article is this?  How does someone accidentally threaten nuclear war????  Get real people! 

Sanctions or diplomacy have not worked from Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama for 32 years!  I say if North Korea dares put hand on Guam, Trump should take them out with fire and fury like this world has never seen before.  Once and for all and close that case!

Bibi Haniffa posted:

What kind of nonsense article is this?  How does someone accidentally threaten nuclear war????  Get real people! 

Sanctions or diplomacy have not worked from Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama for 32 years!  I say if North Korea dares put hand on Guam, Trump should take them out with fire and fury like this world has never seen before.  Once and for all and close that case!

 

do you think you will survive a nuclear war?

RiffRaff posted:

Bibi Haniffa posted:

What kind of nonsense article is this?  How does someone accidentally threaten nuclear war????  Get real people! 

Sanctions or diplomacy have not worked from Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama for 32 years!  I say if North Korea dares put hand on Guam, Trump should take them out with fire and fury like this world has never seen before.  Once and for all and close that case!

 

do you think you will survive a nuclear war?

I don't think anyone would.  That is why Trump should take him out before a world catastrophe happens.

Bibi Haniffa posted:

RiffRaff posted:

Bibi Haniffa posted:

What kind of nonsense article is this?  How does someone accidentally threaten nuclear war????  Get real people! 

Sanctions or diplomacy have not worked from Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama for 32 years!  I say if North Korea dares put hand on Guam, Trump should take them out with fire and fury like this world has never seen before.  Once and for all and close that case!

 

do you think you will survive a nuclear war?

I don't think anyone would.  That is why Trump should take him out before a world catastrophe happens.

S, how would this happen?

Now the World has 2 (TWO) Nut heads. One in Korea and one in the US!!!

Bibi Haniffa posted:

What kind of nonsense article is this?  How does someone accidentally threaten nuclear war????  Get real people! 

Sanctions or diplomacy have not worked from Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama for 32 years!  I say if North Korea dares put hand on Guam, Trump should take them out with fire and fury like this world has never seen before.  Once and for all and close that case!

 

As you stated for 32 years NK been rambling and nothing happened. Trump and Kim are the same, seeking attention and instilling fear to govern. Let the sober heads prevail, Tillerson and Mattis , there will be no war, nobody wants a war. China and Russia will calm North Korea after all the Trump air head noise, he cant get things done at home how can he solve international problems, this is not selling real estate.