"My nuclear button is bigger!": What's Trump actually talking about?
What's the story
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un are at it again. On January 1, Kim said there was "a nuclear button on (my) desk", insisting it's "just a reality, not a threat". Immediately Trump responded how his nuclear button was "much bigger and more powerful". Critics were baffled: 'what's with the nuclear threat? And why's he so obsessed with size?'
Twitter Post
Trump's tweet on Kim Jong-Un
North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” 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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018
Spat
Trump-Kim are like "children in a kindergarten", Russia says
Trump and Kim have been taking potshots at each other since months now. Last November, he said despite Kim calling him "old", he never called him "short and fat". Earlier, Kim had called him a "dotard" after Trump threatened to destroy North Korea. In response, Trump called Kim "a madman". Russia had an apt comparison: the two leaders were like "children in a kindergarten".
Tweets
Apart from nuclear button, Trump has other achievements too
Interestingly, Trump's tweets came on the same day he took credit for "zero deaths" on commercial planes in 2017 (the report talked about the whole world); and announced awards for "the most dishonest and corrupt media of the year" (winners to be named Monday). On New Year, he said Pakistan had given the US "nothing but lies and deceit" for its $33bn aid over the years.
"Size"
The one thing that doesn't change: his fixation with size
Remember when Trump seemed fixated with his hands' size when Marco Rubio attacked him? "He referred to my hands-'if they're small, something else must be small'. I guarantee you there's no problem," Trump had responded. Interestingly, Spy magazine's Graydon Carter, which mocked Trump as a "short-fingered vulgarian" in the 1980s, still apparently receives mails from Trump with photos of his hands circled with marker.
Twitter Post
Twitterati takes a dig at Trump
the button probably just looks bigger by comparison pic.twitter.com/M58GF1DJgh
— social media pants (@nick_pants) January 3, 2018
Reax
Meanwhile, critics are baffled at Trump's tweet
About his latest tweet, critics were far from happy. "We've gotten to a very weird place, where it really doesn't matter what the POTUS says anymore because it's so bizarre," said Rep. Jim Himes. "If you love our country, help me put this lunacy in check," tweeted Rep. Eric Swalwell. Daryl Kimball wants "adults at the WH" to "please disable the @realDonaldTrump smartphone immediately".
"War"
So are US and North Korea heading to a war?
Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman, personally close to Kim and widely recognized as an "informal" mediator, isn't too tense. In an interview to AFP, he said Trump and Kim "are pretty much the same people." "They love control." He also thinks they are bluffing about their nuclear threats. "Ain't nobody got no finger on the button."