US President Donald Trump has boasted about the military might of the United States and weapons that “no one has any idea about.” He responded to a question about whether he fears that his trade war with China could get out of control.
Trump raised the tariffs on Chinese goods to 125 percent on Wednesday, in retaliation for the countermeasures imposed by Beijing. China has not yet responded to this latest increase, despite the Ministry of Commerce promising earlier to continue the trade war “until the end.”
When asked by a journalist whether he is concerned about the next steps Beijing may take and a possible “escalation beyond the trade war” Trump said that Chinese President Xi Jinping is “one of the smartest people in the world” who “would never allow such a thing.”
“We are very powerful. This country is very powerful. It is much more powerful than people understand. We have weapons that no one has any idea about what they are and they are the most powerful weapons in the world that we have. More powerful than all others, not even remotely close” Trump said to journalists in the Oval Office.
“Also, no one will do that” Trump added and emphasized that Xi is a “very smart man” who “knows exactly what needs to be done.”
The US President, who has previously hinted at the existence of secret weapons with unusual scientific terminology, did not go into further detail about the type of weapons he spoke about this time.
In 2020, Trump advertised for a “Super-Duper-Rocket” that could fly “17 times faster” than anything that America’s adversaries have in their arsenals. He also claimed that Russia’s technological breakthroughs in the hypersonic range are due to the theft of US rocket plans during Barack Obama’s presidency – and that, even though the United States has not yet deployed an operational hypersonic weapon.
Moscow and Beijing have made progress in the development of hypersonic weapons in the past decade. Russia put its first hypersonic system, the air-launched Kinzhal missile, into operation in 2017. China unveiled its hypersonic glider DF-ZF two years later.
During the Ukraine conflict, Moscow has reportedly used the Kinzhal and the maritime Zircon hypersonic missiles. In November last year, Moscow also conducted the first combat test of its ballistic intermediate-range rocket Oreshnik, which is equipped with several independently steerable warheads and can reach hypersonic speeds.
In December 2024, Washington announced the successful test launch of its hypersonic long-range weapon, which has been developed since 2017 by Lockheed Martin. The US hopes to equip the first unit with a ground-based version of the rocket this year.