Reports: Trump Told Duterte US Has Two Nuclear Subs Near Korean Peninsula

President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull in the Oval Office of the White House, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull in the Oval Office of the White House, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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President Donald Trump in April told Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that the United States has two nuclear submarines stationed in Korean waters, according to several reports.

“We have a lot of firepower over there. We have two submarines, the best in the world,” Trump bragged to Duterte, according to reports by the New York Times and the Intercept. “We have two nuclear submarines, not that we want to use them at all.”

Trump asked the Philippine president whether North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is “stable or not stable,” according to those reports and one by the Washington Post, all of which cited a transcript of the call produced by the Philippine government.

He called Kim a “madman with nuclear weapons,” according to the reports, but said that at least “all his rockets are crashing.”

“That’s the good news,” Trump said, according to the Washington Post.

BuzzFeed reported on Wednesday, citing three unnamed Pentagon officials, that defense officials were shocked by reports Trump had disclosed the location of the submarines because: “We never talk about subs!”

Trump’s cavalier attitude toward sensitive information is nothing new. The Washington Post reported last week that Trump shared highly classified information with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador to the U.S. during a meeting in the Oval Office earlier in May.

During that meeting, according to the report, Trump also bragged about the “great intel” he gets every day, and went on to disclose that highly classified information, which he did not have permission to share.

This post has been updated.

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Notable Replies

  1. Sweet, fancy Moses!

    He’s even worse than I imagined he’d be, something I didn’t think was possible.

  2. Trump asked the Philippine president whether North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is “stable or not stable,”

    “Hey Rodrigo, you and Kim both slanty-eyed Chinky gooks, maybe you savvy what he’s like, comprende? You make speaka English, chop-chop?”

    He’s even worse than I imagined he’d be, something I didn’t think was possible.

    Think of the worst thing, double it, double it again, and then you’ll have something just a fraction as bad as Trump. There are literally no outer limits.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CtjhWhw2I8
  3. “Wait…It’s either Korea or Croatia…not 100% sure…but there’s two of 'em and they are totally badass.”

  4. If a foreign leader treated national security issues as cavalierly as Trump does, we wouldn’t tell them anything.

    Can we wall of Trump?

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