Donald Trump goes berserk over nuclear weapons, threatens to pull the plug on an entire TV network
Donald Trump apparently wants the ability to nuke any country he wants, and the ability to nuke any television network he wants. That’s the upshot after a TV network reported that Trump is looking to increase America’s nuclear arsenal tenfold – and Trump responded by not only refuting the report (even though it’s thoroughly well sourced), but also by explicitly threatening to pull the plug on that network.
Trump has been attacking NBC News on a regular and escalating basis since it reported last week that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had called Trump a “moron.” Now NBC is reporting a new inside story about Trump wanting to vastly increase the nuclear arsenal (link), at a time when even members of his own party have begun publicly pointing out that he’s too mentally unstable to be anywhere near the nuclear launch codes. The story was enough to send him off on the kind of berserk tirade that serves to prove his detractors right.
This morning Trump tweeted “Fake NBC News made up a story that I wanted a “tenfold” increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN! With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!” Because NBC is a broadcast network, Trump appears to believe that he can have the FCC revoke its broadcast license or transponder, literally pulling the plug on the network’s broadcasts.
It’s never been entirely clear whether the federal government has the authority to do so, because – as has so often become the refrain during the Donald Trump debacle – no other president has ever floated the idea of doing such a demented thing. Trump’s desire to increase the nuclear arsenal tenfold is enough of a reason to immediately impeach him. His threat to shut down NBC is just as valid of a reason for his ouster.
