--- title: Trump Denies Wanting To Nuke Hurricanes description: President Trump is denying a report that he has suggested dropping nuclear bombs on hurricanes as a way of disrupting them. canonical: https://time.com/5661380/trump-hurricanes-nukes-nuclear-bombs/ author: Madeleine Carlisle article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-08-26T13:07:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:38.973Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Denies Wanting to Nuke Hurricanes og:description: Experts resoundingly consider the idea preposterous og:url: https://time.com/5661380/trump-hurricanes-nukes-nuclear-bombs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9b0a9de8e2ab629/698a01f197cdff65fd6b96e5/trump-nuclear-bomb-hurricane-axios.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Trump Nuclear Bomb Axios og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Denies Wanting to Nuke Hurricanes twitter:description: Experts resoundingly consider the idea preposterous twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9b0a9de8e2ab629/698a01f197cdff65fd6b96e5/trump-nuclear-bomb-hurricane-axios.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Denies Wanting to Nuke Hurricanes to Stop Them From Hitting the U.S. > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Bahamians look for loved ones as 1,300 missing after Dorian [Watch (HLS stream): Bahamians look for loved ones as 1,300 missing after Dorian](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gVYJySmF.m3u8) (1:47)  _Published 2019-08-26. They scan social media, peer under rubble, or try to follow the smell of death in an attempt to find family and friends. They search amid alarming reports that 1,300 people remain listed as missing nearly two weeks after Hurricane Dorian._  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Aug 26, 2019 1:07 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks to the media before departing from the White House on August 21, 2019. President Donald Trump speaks to the media before departing from the White House on August 21, 2019. Mark Wilson—Getty Images  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Aug 26, 2019 1:07 PM UTC President Donald Trump is denying a report that he has suggested dropping nuclear bombs on hurricanes as a way of disrupting them before they make landfall in the United States. “I never said this,” Trump tweeted early Monday. “Just more FAKE NEWS!” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1165918301932916736) The President’s tweet comes after Axios published a [story](https://www.axios.com/trump-nuclear-bombs-hurricanes-97231f38-2394-4120-a3fa-8c9cf0e3f51c.html) Sunday reporting that Trump raised the idea of using nuclear bombs to [stop hurricanes](https://time.com/5303486/hurricanes-slowing-down-study/) in multiple meetings with senior Homeland Security and national security advisors. Axios cited sources who “have heard the President’s private remarks and been briefed on a National Security Council memorandum that recorded those comments.” Jonathan Swan, who wrote the Axios story, stands by his reporting, he says. > [](https://twitter.com/jonathanvswan/status/1165954132202655744) The idea of dropping a nuclear bomb on a hurricane is far from new — it was first considered [as early as the 1960s](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/11/hurricanes-weather-history-nuclear-weapons/). But as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [says](https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5c.html), dropping a [nuclear bomb](https://time.com/5656057/pentagon-missile-test-inf-treaty-russia/) on a hurricane would not only fail to slow the storm, but would also release “radioactive fallout would fairly quickly move with the tradewinds to affect land areas and cause devastating environmental problems.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5661380/trump-hurricanes-nukes-nuclear-bombs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5661380/trump-hurricanes-nukes-nuclear-bombs/"},"headline":"President Trump Denies Wanting to Nuke Hurricanes to Stop Them From Hitting the U.S.","datePublished":"2019-08-26T13:07:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:52:38.973Z","description":"Experts resoundingly consider the idea preposterous","url":"https://time.com/5661380/trump-hurricanes-nukes-nuclear-bombs/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9b0a9de8e2ab629/698a01f197cdff65fd6b96e5/trump-nuclear-bomb-hurricane-axios.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madeleine Carlisle","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9b0a9de8e2ab629/698a01f197cdff65fd6b96e5/trump-nuclear-bomb-hurricane-axios.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump Nuclear Bomb Axios","caption":"Trump Nuclear Bomb Axios","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5661380/trump-hurricanes-nukes-nuclear-bombs/","name":"President Trump Denies Wanting to Nuke Hurricanes to Stop Them From Hitting the U.S."}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Bahamians look for loved ones as 1,300 missing after Dorian","description":"They scan social media, peer under rubble, or try to follow the smell of death in an attempt to find family and friends. 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