August 8, 2017

Trump Vows to Meet North Korea Threats With “Fire and Fury”

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States.”

President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned North Korea against escalating nuclear tensions, promising the United States would unleash unprecedented “fire and fury” if the country did not stop threatening to retaliate against the United Nations’ newest sanctions. 

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Trump told reporters from his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course, where he is vacationing for the next two weeks. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. They will be met with fire, fury, and frankly power the likes of which the world has never seen.”

The president’s ominous remarks came just hours after it was reported that North Korea had developed a missile-ready nuclear weapon.

Trump has long been fascinated by the threat of nuclear war. In 1990, he described nuclear destruction in inevitable terms, deeming it “the greatest of all stupidities” for people to believe it could be avoided.

During the presidential campaign, Trump reportedly asked a foreign policy expert why the US refrains from utilizing its nuclear capabilities. 

In 2013, Trump criticized then-President Barack Obama for fueling tensions that could lead to the next world war.

We've never been very good at being conservative.

And usually, that serves us well in doing the ambitious, hard-hitting journalism that you turn to Mother Jones for. But it also means we can't afford to come up short when it comes to scratching together the funds it takes to keep our team firing on all cylinders, and the truth is, we finished our budgeting cycle on June 30 about $100,000 short of our online goal.

This is no time to come up short. It's time to fight like hell, as our namesake would tell us to do, for a democracy where minority rule cannot impose an extreme agenda, where facts matter, and where accountability has a chance at the polls and in the press. If you value our reporting and you can right now, please help us dig out of the $100,000 hole we're starting our new budgeting cycle in with an always-needed and always-appreciated donation today.

payment methods

We've never been very good at being conservative.

And usually, that serves us well in doing the ambitious, hard-hitting journalism that you turn to Mother Jones for. But it also means we can't afford to come up short when it comes to scratching together the funds it takes to keep our team firing on all cylinders, and the truth is, we finished our budgeting cycle on June 30 about $100,000 short of our online goal.

This is no time to come up short. It's time to fight like hell, as our namesake would tell us to do, for a democracy where minority rule cannot impose an extreme agenda, where facts matter, and where accountability has a chance at the polls and in the press. If you value our reporting and you can right now, please help us dig out of the $100,000 hole we're starting our new budgeting cycle in with an always-needed and always-appreciated donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate