You can’t make this stuff up. But here we are. This President, Donald Trump, that guy, stirred controversy during a speech to top U.S. military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Sept. 30 when he equated the term “nuclear” with the racial slur known as the N-word.
Just wait. Look for yourself.
In his wild remarks, Trump told the room, “I call it the N word. There are two N words, and you can’t use either of them.” He has used similar phrasing before, suggesting that discussion around nuclear weapons carries a taboo equal to that of a racial epithet. The president has made this comparison in past appearances, including speeches in West Palm Beach and multiple posts on Truth Social.
During the rambling 72-minute address, Trump also claimed he had ordered submarines to move near Russia in response to nuclear threats from Russian official Dmitry Medvedev. “We can’t let people throw around that word,” Trump said, again framing “nuclear” as the N-word. “Frankly, if it does get to use, we have more than anybody else. We have better. We have newer. But it’s something we don’t ever want to have to think about.”
If you can believe this, in the past there have been statements in which Trump has linked nuclear escalation with his “two N words” phrase. In June, he accused Medvedev of “casually throwing around the N-word (Nuclear!)” in reference to Russia’s doomsday launch system. Then in August, Trump announced that he had ordered nuclear submarines into “appropriate regions” in case Russia’s threats were more than bluster.
The latest abhorrent comparison has ignited backlash, with critics saying his choice of words trivializes both racial slurs and nuclear warfare, while supporters frame it as Trump’s characteristic bluntness in describing sensitive issues.
This is where we are. This is our timeline. And this is not normal.