Donald Trump's controversy-plagued re-election bid has led him to lag behind his opponent Joe Biden in several key states. In a bid to amend his rundown reputation, the president doesn't shy away from bragging about his achievements, even if requires him to gossip about anxiety-provoking nukes.
Trump takes it as another perk of being the president as he continues to hint at a secret, he claims only he can reveal. Talking about his "great intel," he once opened up to Russian officials, who had visited the Oval Office in 2017, about an ISIS plot that was so classified that disclosing it could risk exposing the source, CNN reported.
In that same year, Trump revealed to the President of the Philippines that the United States had positioned submarines near North Korea. This piece of classified information was so closely held that even some people inside the White House were caught by surprise.
Aside from that, a recently surfaced conversation with journalist Bob Woodward, the POTUS revealed details about a nuclear weapon system he said, no one in the country had seen or heard about. "I have built a nuclear," he told the legendary journalist, adding that nobody had ever seen or heard about the weapons system.
A recording of their Dec. 5, 2019 conversation reveals that Trump said the United States had "Stuff" that Russia's President Vladimir Putin or the General Secretary of the (CCP) Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping have never heard about before. Describing it as incredible, Trump said what the U.S. has, nobody else does.
Trump has revealed several such classified shreds of information, sparking anxiety throughout the national security apparatus. Some Democrats raised concerns about the disclosure potentially harming national security, but inside the administration, many were worried about what could be touted as another boast from a president who has a reputation for divulging state secrets.
In his book entitled "Rage," Bob Woodward claims he talked to several anonymous US officials about the development of the new weapons system, and they were surprised that Trump revealed it. The remark was also revealing because it testified to Trump's tendency of using secret government information to overawe his interviewers and make his stature known.
Woodward spoke with Trump eighteen times for the book in conversation with the president's most senior aides were usually unaware of. Bent on creating a positive portrayal, Trump gave Woodward his personal cell phone number and usually called him at night from the White House residence.
It looked like Trump believed that the more access he gave Woodward, the better the book would make him look, CNN's Kevin Liptak explained. A considerable number of his conversations were crafted to impress the veteran journalist with his insider knowledge and access to secret information. He even told Woodward about his encounters with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.