Nuclear tensions between the US and North Korea have become personal once again, with President Donald Trump boasting that he has a bigger nuclear button than Kim Jong Un.
On social media, US citizens and foreigners alike responded with disbelief as Trump turned Pyongyang’s nuclear threat into a button-measuring contest:
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Coming so early in the new year, the president’s take on the North Korean nuclear crisis was all too much for some:
A 2016 remark by Hillary Clinton about her then-rival for the White House seemed all too timely for some:
While others simply hoped that preventative measures have already been taken:
Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Army veteran who lost her legs in Iraq, highlighted the risk to US service personnel stationed in South Korea, dismissing Trump as “Cadet Bone Spurs” - a reference to the medical condition which kept him from being drafted in the Vietnam war.
Many argued that Twitter should remove the tweet or even shut down the president’s account altogether rather than risk the social media platform becoming the launchpad for a nuclear apocalypse:
However, comedian Matt Oswalt had a tongue-in-cheek counterpoint:
But while many saw the outlandish game of “nuclear chicken” as a sign of an unhinged mind, retired linguistics professor George Lakoff claimed that there is canny political method in Trump’s apparent Twitter madness:
-
Nnela Kalu’s historic Turner Prize winTalking Point Glasgow-born artist is first person with a learning disability to win Britain’s biggest art prize
-
Bridget Riley: Learning to See – an ‘invigorating and magical ensemble’The Week Recommends The English artist’s striking paintings turn ‘concentration into reverie’
-
‘Stakeknife’: MI5’s man inside the IRAThe Explainer Freddie Scappaticci, implicated in 14 murders and 15 abductions during the Troubles, ‘probably cost more lives than he saved’, investigation claims
-
Pakistan: Trump’s ‘favourite field marshal’ takes chargeIn the Spotlight Asim Munir’s control over all three branches of Pakistan’s military gives him ‘sweeping powers’ – and almost unlimited freedom to use them
-
Is Europe finally taking the war to Russia?Today's Big Question As Moscow’s drone buzzes and cyberattacks increase, European leaders are taking a more openly aggressive stance
-
Pushing for peace: is Trump appeasing Moscow?In Depth European leaders succeeded in bringing themselves in from the cold and softening Moscow’s terms, but Kyiv still faces an unenviable choice
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
-
Brazil’s Bolsonaro behind bars after appeals run outSpeed Read He will serve 27 years in prison
-
South Africa wraps up G20 summit boycotted by USSpeed Read Trump has been sparring with South Africa in recent months
-
Trump pushes new Ukraine peace planSpeed Read It involves a 28-point plan to end the war
-
Americans traveling abroad face renewed criticism in the Trump eraThe Explainer Some of Trump’s behavior has Americans being questioned
