Update: Trump has doubled down on the nuclear rhetoric:
"The former president of Russia made a threat, and we are going to protect our people. Medvedev spoke about nuclear weapons, when you talk about nuclear weapons, we must be ready. We are fully ready," Trump explained to reporters his order to deploy nuclear submarines after Medvedev's threats.
Here’s the clip. The quote above isn’t fully accurate — he said “prepared,” not “ready” (in the second instance “totally prepared.”).
Trump posted this earlier on Truth Social:
This is what Trump is referring to:
Also, apparently Medvedev made an even more ominous allusion that likely contributed to Trump’s statement:
Medvedev said that Trump's statement showed that Russia should continue on its current policy course.
"If some words from the former president of Russia trigger such a nervous reaction from the high-and-mighty president of the United States, then Russia is doing everything right and will continue to proceed along its own path," Medvedev said in a post on Telegram.
Trump should remember, he said, "how dangerous the fabled 'Dead Hand' can be," a reference to a secretive semi-automated Russian command system designed to launch Moscow's nuclear missiles if its leadership had been taken out in a decapitating strike by a foe.
Suddenly, it’s like the Cuban Missile Crisis, only it's Trump in charge and not JFK. And instead of talking to Khrushchev, he's talking to whoever was second in command at the time in the USSR. Why wouldn’t he address this to Putin?
Of course, we certainly already have nuclear submarines in strategic locations, including within striking distance of Russia. And they have nuclear submarines in strategic locations, within striking distance of the United States. So this is clearly just posturing.
Except, it’s an escalation straight from economic and diplomatic response, past a threat of conventional warfare, straight to nuclear war. It’s insanity that threatens the very existence of civilization. And the absolutely crazy thought that comes to mind is that it could be yet another distraction — this time, another in the line of distractions from the Epstein situation we’ve experienced over the last few weeks.
There have been a variety of theories (lying somewhere between batshit crazy conspiracy theory and proven fact) that Trump and Putin are in league somehow. I’m in the camp that says it’s certainly plausible but without evidence. So who knows, this could just be another PsyOp (a term I’m becoming increasingly familiar with) to take the Epstein pressure off Trump as he maneuvers his way out of that mess.
After all, Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein co-conspirator serving a 20-year sentence and recently “interviewed” by the man who was previously Trump’s personal lawyer, has now been moved to a minimum-security prison in Texas. She has petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn her conviction, and there’s the possibility that Trump will pardon her.
And, according to Bloomberg, the FBI redacted Trump’s and various other prominent figures’ names from the Epstein files. Probably, that’s what the 1,000 or so FBI agents were working on for the last few months.
So, it’s possible that Trump just needs to buy some time before the entire affair goes down the memory hole and MAGA can forget all about it. Most MAGA influencers already been using every possible distraction — Obama “treason,” Sydney Sweeney, and a host of others — to allow them to support Trump while evading Epstein. But there’s still a contention that won’t let Epstein go.
We’re therefore in the surreality of two possible scenarios. Trump is literally playing nuclear brinksmanship with Russia to distract from his part in the Epstein pedophile ring. Or, he’s working with Putin, via Medvedev, to accomplish the same thing. The only difference is whether or not we’re on the brink of nuclear war.