President Donald Trump reportedly surprised military officials when he told Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward about a secretive new weapons system, which the iconic Washington Post journalist writes about in his new book, titled “Rage.”
In his book, which was previewed by the Washington Post — where Woodward is an associate editor — he writes that Trump told him, “I have built a nuclear — a weapons system that nobody’s ever had in this country before. We have stuff that you haven’t even seen or heard about. We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before. There’s nobody — what we have is incredible.”
Woodward also writes that anonymous military officials confirmed that the United States has a secretive new weapons system. However, the officials would not discuss details of the system and they expressed surprise when they learned that Trump had told Woodward about the system.
This is not the first time that Trump has irked officials by flouting classified information. In 2017, he reportedly discussed classified intelligence information with Russian officials. After that, conversation, one US official told the Washington Post that Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”
That information was not gathered by the U.S. but provided by one of America’s allies and reportedly concerned the inner workings of ISIS.
Trump defended his decision to disclose classified information, later tweeting, “As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”
As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
…to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
Woodward’s revelation that Trump disclosed classified information to him is not the only eyebrow-raising excerpt from the book. At another point in “Rage,” Woodward writes that Trump admitted that he knew the coronavirus was deadly and that he intended to “downplay” it.