Trump to Kim: My Button Is Bigger Than Yours

'And my button works,' he tweets
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 3, 2018 1:34 AM CST
Updated Jan 3, 2018 5:31 AM CST
Trump Tells Kim He Has Bigger, Better Nuclear Button
President Trump sits at his desk in the Oval Office of the White House.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Trump fired back at Kim Jong Un's claim to have a nuclear button on his desk by telling the North Korean leader that his button is bigger—and more functional. Kim "just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times,'" Trump tweeted Tuesday. "Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!" Trump, who appears to be stepping up his rhetoric against Pyongyang after months of relatively restrained remarks, also brought back his "Rocket Man" nickname for Kim earlier Tuesday, the Washington Post reports.

The reaction on social media ranged from shock that Trump was treating the prospect of nuclear war so blithely to delight that Trump was attacking Kim and upsetting "snowflakes" at the same time, the New York Times reports. Some—including CNN host Brian Stelter—argued that Trump might be having some kind of meltdown, or argued that Twitter should shut down his account for violating its terms of service. Others noted that Trump doesn't actually have a big nuclear button on his desk—to launch a nuclear strike, he would have to use a briefcase known as the "nuclear football." (Relations between North Korea and South Korea, meanwhile, may be improved by the Winter Olympics in the South next month.)

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