Donald Trump Floored Puerto Rico Governor With Nuclear War Boast, New Book Claims

Then-President Donald Trump stunned then-Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossell in 2017 with a boast about how America wouldnt hang around if it came to launching nuclear weapons at an adversary, Rossell recalls in his new memoir.

In The Reformers Dilemma, Rossell remembers Trump telling him during a helicopter trip over areas of the island that had been hit by the monster Hurricane Maria that nature has a way of coming back, until it doesnt.

The now-presumptive GOP presidential nominee brought up the unknowns of the aftermath of nuclear warfare and said what Rossell described as the one thing that made me more concerned than anything else in the entire visit, per excerpts obtained by The Hill .

Trump said that if nuclear war happens, we wont be second in line pressing the button, Rossell reportedly wrote in the book due out Tuesday.

This statement floored me, Rossell wrote, according to The Hill. I could not believe what I was hearing. It was surreal. Was he really talking about total annihilation as we flew over the ravaged sights of the island?

In Rossells book, the former governor also addressed Trumps tossing of paper towels to a crowd during the same trip.

The image plastered in history was one that demonstrates disdain and repulsion for the people, he said, per The Hill. Was it dumb and incredibly thoughtless? Yes. The president should have known better. But that does not detract from the true story: The media narrative got carried away, which is happening more often than not in our political culture.

Following his visit, Trump repeatedly attacked the island  on social media.

Trump ramped up spending  on Americas nuclear arsenal during his administration and frequently warned of deploying nukes, such as with his Little Rocket Man taunts of his now-ally Kim Jong Un, the despotic leader of North Korea.

Washington Post reporters Robert Costa and Bob Woodward wrote in their 2021 book Peril that Mark Milley, the then-chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was compelled to assure then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that the nuclear triggers are secure and that the president alone can order the use of nuclear weapons but doesnt make the decision alone because they actually have to be launched by multiple people.

Rossell resigned from his role of governing the U.S. territory in 2019 following mass protests amid allegations of corruption and the fallout from the Chatgate scandal.