Donald Trump apparently once asked if China was shooting hurricanes at the U.S.

A former adviser described the thought to Rolling Stone as “too stupid for words.”

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 04: U.S. President Donald Trump (R) references a map held by acting Homel...
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Hurricanes: an act of god or an act of war? These are the difficult questions that former President Donald Trump was brave enough to ask. According to a report from Rolling Stone, Trump started probing into the possibility that hurricanes may not be a natural disaster but are instead man-made weapons sent as an attack on the United States by China.

In what apparently became known among Trump advisers as the “hurricane gun” theory, the then-president reportedly wondered aloud if China has the technology to artificially create hurricanes and fire them at the U.S. The answer to that question was — presumably — nervous laughter before realizing he was totally serious, then complete panic that the president believes hurricanes can be weaponized.

Of course, once you start thinking that there is such a thing as an attack hurricane, you’re going to have some follow-up questions. According to Rolling Stone, Trump started asking whether, if China did shoot a hurricane at us, would it constitute an act of war by a foreign power? And if it does, can the U.S. retaliate with its military?

Was Trump just trying to come up with an excuse to attack China? Probably. But points awarded for developing what sounds like the plot of a B movie and wouldn’t feel out of place as the latest installment of the Sharknado series. God help us if Trump wins election again in 2024 and watches the movie Moonfall, because if so we’re going to be sending astronauts to the moon to make sure it’s not planning to attack us.

Not to lend any credence to Trump’s theory, which one of his former officials described to Rolling Stone as being “too stupid for words,” but China has toyed around with controlling weather. The country has, on multiple occasions, used cloud seeding, which is a process of adding chemicals to the air in order to artificially increase the odds of precipitation. But creating a hurricane requires a bit more work than that. You’d have to be able to control the temperature of ocean water and the air, plus create powerful and sustained winds that can push water vapor into the air and create clouds ... it’s a whole thing, and it’s not happening any time soon.

Still, in a way, you really have to hand it to Trump. He’s asking the questions that no one else will. After all, he’s the same guy who suggested that maybe we could drop nuclear weapons in the middle of tropical storms in order to stop them. You just aren’t going to find those kinds of ideas anywhere else.