- Former aides say Trump once asked if China had a weapon that could shoot human-made hurricanes.
- "It was almost too stupid for words," a former Trump official told Rolling Stone.
- Trump has also previously suggested that the US nuke hurricanes in order to disrupt their path.
Former President Donald Trump once fixated on the idea that China had a weapon that could fire human-made hurricanes at the US, according to a Rolling Stone article published on Tuesday.
The outlet spoke to two senior Trump administration officials and his former press secretary Stephanie Grisham about his interest in the matter.
The two sources, who spoke to Rolling Stone under the condition of anonymity, said Trump began asking his aides about the supposed Chinese weapon during the first year of his presidency and that the issue kept resurfacing until the second year.
Some staffers later mockingly referred to Trump's idea as the "Hurricane Gun" theory, per the outlet.
According to the officials, Trump also asked if the US could retaliate militarily if such a weapon existed, per Rolling Stone.
"I was present once when he asked if China 'made' hurricanes to send to us," one of the former officials told the outlet, adding that Trump "wanted to know if the technology existed."
"One guy in the room responded, 'Not to the best of my knowledge, sir.' I kept it together until I got back to my office … I do not know where the president would have heard about that," the former official told Rolling Stone. "He was asking about it around the time, maybe a little before he asked people about nuking hurricanes."
"It was almost too stupid for words," said the other former official, per the outlet. "I did not get the sense he was joking at all."
Grisham told Rolling Stone that the idea of Trump asking about China's "Hurricane Gun" did not surprise her.
"Stuff like that was not unusual for him. He would blurt out crazy things all the time, and tell aides to look into it or do something about it," said Grisham, per the outlet. "His staff would say they'd look into knowing that more often than not, he'd forget about it quickly — much like a toddler."
Trump's spokesperson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on the matter.
The former president also once asked about the possibility of using nuclear weapons to stop hurricanes from hitting the US, positing without any scientific evidence that the US could "drop a bomb" into the eye of a hurricane to disrupt its course.
Trump has also baselessly claimed that climate change was a Chinese hoax, which prompted a strong rebuttal from Beijing in 2016.