On Monday, former President Donald Trump said that the United States should send its nuclear submarines up and down the Russian coast to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop his war in Ukraine as the conflict heads into its fifth week.
During an appearance on Fox Business, Trump highlighted his experience dealing with Putin, telling host Stuart Varney that the Russian leader frequently brought up nuclear weapons.
“I listened to him constantly using the n-word, that’s the n-word, and he’s constantly using it: the nuclear word,” Trump said. “And we say, ‘Oh, he’s a nuclear power.’ But we’re a greater nuclear power. We have the greatest submarines in the world, the most powerful machines ever built.”
“You should say, ‘Look, you mention that word one more time, we’re going to send them over and we’ll be coasting back and forth, up and down your coast,” Trump continued. “You can’t let this tragedy continue. You can’t let these, these thousands of people die.”
According to the United States Navy, the U.S. has a fleet of 14 Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines carrying 20 missiles each.
“The Navy’s ballistic missile submarines, often referred to as “boomers,” serve as an undetectable launch platform for submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). They are designed specifically for stealth and the precise delivery of nuclear warheads,” the Navy’s website states.
Trump also praised his administration’s efforts to rebuild the United States nuclear power.
“I hated to do it, but I rebuilt our nuclear capability like nobody has ever thought even possible. Two-and-a-half trillion dollars in our military and a big chunk of it went to nuclear and redoing it,” he said. “We had 45-year-old and 50-year-old weapons that we didn’t even know if they worked. Now we have brand new stuff that’s immensely powerful. Hope to God you never have to use it because that would be the tragedy of all tragedies.”
Last month, Putin activated Russia’s special deterrence forces, which includes nuclear weapons. The move puts Russia’s nuclear weapons network on heightened alert, moving it into a ready state that is one step away from a launch.
“Top officials in NATO’s leading countries have been making aggressive statements against our country. For this reason, I give orders to the defense minister and chief of the General Staff to introduce a special combat service regime in the Russian army’s deference forces,” Putin said during a televised meeting with his top military aides, as reported by Russia’s state-run TASS.
Putin insisted that his decision was in reaction to harsh actions against Russia, including “illegitimate sanctions” that the U.S. and NATO nations enacted in recent days.
