Trump: My Nbutton is bigger
SABRERATTLING US president’s tweet in response to North Korean leader leads to ridicule in social media
US president Donald Trump has ratcheted up the rhetoric with North Korea threatening a nuclear exchange, saying in a tweet he has a “nuclear button” too and it’s “much bigger & more powerful” than Kim Jong-un’s.
“North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times’. Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!,” Trump tweeted.
It was a response to the New Year’s address by the North Korean leader. “It’s not a mere threat but a reality that I have a nuclear button on the desk in my office,” he had said.
“All of the mainland United States is within the range of our nuclear strike.”
North Korea’s nuclear arsenal of an estimated 60 warheads is no match for 6,800 of the United States, but Pyongyang has the capability to deliver its missiles to the American mainland now, and that should be a sobering thought.
But not to President Trump, who has matched the North Korean leader’s rhetoric, insult for insult, and boast for boast.
In the past, Trump has called Kim “Rocket Man” and “short and fat”, and while addressing the United Nations General Assembly, had threatened to “totally destroy” the Asian country.
But earlier on Tuesday, Trump had seemed less angry in a tweet, taking credit for US actions to bring North Korea around to consider talks
“Sanctions and ‘other’ pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea,” Trump wrote.
“Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see!”
SOCIAL MEDIA CONCERN OVER TRUMP TWEETS
Trump’s tweet set off a torrent of concern on Twitter — and a few jokes about masculine preoccupation with size.
The response online was generally one of concern that a subject so stark and potentially catastrophic as nuclear weapons was being blithely discussed on social media by a man who has the power to use them.
Some commentators said Trump’s tweets on Tuesday, which also included a declaration that he was responsible for a record year in global airline safety, were signs something was wrong with the president.
Some people said the tweet should qualify as a violation of Twitter’s policy prohibiting threats of violence.
After the CNN host and correspondent Brian Stelter raised the question of whether Trump had violated Twitter’s terms of service, Dan Scavino Jr, the White House director of social media, accused him of urging that Twitter take action against the president’s account.
Stelter replied that he had contacted Twitter but that it had no immediate comment.
But there were supporters of Trump too, some of whom felt that Kim, as a dictator responsible for global instability and widespread suffering of his own people, deserved to be insulted than coddled.
WASHINGTON: