Reports that President Trump revealed sensitive information to Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, mentioning on a phone call that the Unites States had nuclear submarines near North Korea last month, drove a fresh round of media hysteria on Wednesday. But days before Trump even spoke to Duterte at least part of that information had been broadcast publicly in a Naval press release.
Leaked transcripts of Trump’s April 29 call with Duterte showed he discussed military operations near the Korean Peninsula, saying, “We have a lot of firepower over there. We have two submarines — the best in the world. We have two nuclear submarines, not that we want to use them at all.”
In response, NBC News editor Brad Jaffy tweeted, “That’s…not usually something we talk about.” Headlines ranged from “Trump may have revealed the location of ‘nuclear submarines’ on phone call to Philippine’s Duterte,” to “Trump Revealed Location Of U.S. Nuclear Subs In Call With Duterte.”
But a quick check of the U.S. Navy’s website shows the Navy itself publicly announced the USS Michigan’s arrival in Busan on April 25 in a news release, four days before Trump’s phone call with Duterte. On May 2, the Navy announced in another news release that the USS Cheyenne had arrived at Sasebo.
Though the Cheyenne announcement came after Trump’s call with Duterte, it’s an indication that the information is not as sensitive as some are suggesting.
Given that the Navy itself had released news of the Michigan’s arrival days before the phone call even took place, reports characterizing Trump’s comments as a “revelation” are probably a bit hysterical.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
