Trump asked whether China had attacked U.S. with a “hurricane gun

Former President Donald Trump repeatedly pressed national security officials on whether China had a secret weapon to launch hurricanes at the United States while he was in office, three sources told Rolling Stone.

Trump repeatedly asked national security officials whether China had secret technology capable of creating a man-made hurricane, two former senior administration officials and another source briefed on the comments told the outlet. Trump also inquired whether such an attack would amount to an "act of war by a foreign power" and whether the U.S. could retaliate militarily, according to the report.

"It was almost too stupid for words," a former administration official told Rolling Stone. "I did not get the sense he was joking at all."

Trump began asking about the would-be weapon during the first year of his presidency and continued to occasionally inquire about it until at least 2018. Trump asked about the potential weapon often enough that aides labeled it the "Hurricane Gun" thing.

"I was present [once] when he asked if China 'made' hurricanes to send to us," a former administration official told the outlet. 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 [then-]president would have heard about that… He was asking about it around the time, maybe a little before, he asked people about nuking hurricanes."

Trump denied the report but Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, later introduced a bill aimed at blocking the president from using nuclear bombs to try to affect the weather.