In what is being called an “escalating war of words,” President Donald Trump announced in a social media post that he is repositioning two nuclear submarines in response to an apparent threat made by the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev. Some see Trump’s move as a distraction from the bad news of the week, including the ongoing Epstein files scandal and Friday’s poor jobs report.
Medvedev, who served as President of Russia, denounced Trump’s deadline for Russia to end its illegal war against Ukraine this week as a “step towards war,” Fox News reported.
Calling Medvedev’s remarks “highly provocative statements,” Trump announced: “I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.”
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Trump did not state where the “appropriate regions” are.
“Words are very important,” he declared, “and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances.”
Military.com’s Konstantin Toropin called it “an incredibly rare move” that “the President publicly announces that two US nuclear submarines are apparently poised to strike Russia.”
“Important note,” he added, “all US subs are nuclear so it’s not immediately clear if Trump is communicating a nuclear or conventional deterrent here.”
Critics weighed in.
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HuffPost Senior White House correspondent S.V. Dáte noted: “1) Remember when he claimed that Biden and Harris would get us into WWIII? 2) Normally the US does not breathe one word, not one syllable, about the location of the Navy’s missile boats. 3) 77 million Americans voted for this. 4) How far will he go to distract from Epstein?”
MeidasTouch News editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski wrote: “Probably just a coincidence that Trump announces he’s stationing two nuclear subs off Russia because of war threats just hours after the worst jobs report in 5 years just dropped.”
“Trump spent every day for 4 years saying that Biden was about to start World War 3 and if he got elected he would end the war in Ukraine and we would have peace with Russia because he has a great relationship with Putin,” Filipkowski added.
Podcaster Fred Wellman, an Army veteran of 22 years, responded to the news with: “Wow. Epstein.”
“How Trump went from ‘wouldn’t it be great to get along with Russia’ to deploying nuclear subs in response to Medvedev is a tale of astonishing Russian diplomatic failure,” noted The Daily Telegraph’s Chief foreign affairs commentator David Blair.
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