For the second time in less than 24 hours, President Donald Trump sought to dismiss an Axios report that he had, on multiple occasions, asked about the feasibility of using a nuclear strike to dissipate hurricanes before they reach shore: “Fake News is still trying to perpetuate the phony story.”

Earlier on Monday, Axios’ White House correspondent Jonathan Swan reported that Trump had repeatedly offered up the idea of nuking hurricanes to disrupt them in meetings with national security officials, only to be politely ignored. Clearly annoyed for being publicly ridiculed for such a dangerous idea, Trump denied the story and called it “ridiculous.” Axios, however, did not back down.

Nor, apparently, has the president, and he returned to complaining on Twitter about the report not long after returning to the US from his G7 Summit in France. “The Fake News is still trying to perpetuate the phony story that I wanted to use Nuclear weapons to blow up hurricanes before they reach shore. This is so ridiculous, never happened!”

Just returned to Washington from France and the very successful G-7, only to find that the Fake News is still trying to perpetuate the phony story that I wanted to use Nuclear weapons to blow up hurricanes before they reach shore. This is so ridiculous, never happened!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2019

Despite this second, retaliatory strike, Axios remained steadfast in its support for Swan’s story, replying to Trump’s Tweet: “We stand by our reporting.”

We stand by our reporting on this story, which you can read here: https://t.co/GJe5uudVOo

— Axios (@axios) August 27, 2019

Photo credit: Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images.

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