The Tweeter-in-chief may have spilled some classified military secrets on his favorite social media channel.
On Monday evening, Trump tweeted about a Russian rocket explosion that killed five of the country’s nuclear engineers. According to the BBC, the explosion sparked speculation the accident involved a nuclear-powered cruise missile known as the “Burevestnik” or “Skyfall”.
Trump also added a little boast about the U.S. having “more advanced” missiles
The United States is learning much from the failed missile explosion in Russia. We have similar, though more advanced, technology. The Russian “Skyfall” explosion has people worried about the air around the facility, and far beyond. Not good!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2019
There’s just one problem.
The U.S. isn’t supposed to have “similar” missiles as that project was supposedly abandoned more than 50 years ago. If Trump’s tweet is more than just his customary bragging, then he just casually revealed our military secrets to the entire world.
Several experts on the matter called out the president and the supposed “advanced technology” he was boasting about:
This is bizarre. We do not have a nuclear-powered cruise missile program. We tried to build one, in the 1960's, but it was too crazy, too unworkable, too cruel even for those nuclear nuts Cold War years. https://t.co/DWMn07yO3Y https://t.co/7Uqpx7B7Sk
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) August 12, 2019
If the United States truly has a "similar, though more advanced" nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile in development, it must be a highly classified program because there's nothing on the public record. So are you baselessly boasting or divulging secrets? Moreover … 1/2 https://t.co/4at7inkjwf
— Stephen Schwartz (@AtomicAnalyst) August 12, 2019
So either Trump is lying, which is always a possibility, or he is incompetent to expose U.S. national military secrets. Both are a distinct possibility.