Former President Donald Trump once again found himself in troubled waters on Thursday after revelations that he leaked classified information about the US Navy’s nuclear submarines to an Australian billionaire, including by touting the number of nuclear warheads they could carry.
According to ABC, Trump met with billionaire Anthony Pratt – president of the world’s largest packaging company, Pratt Industries – at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, in April 2021.
Mr Pratt reportedly explained, during interviews with FBI investigators, that he got Donald Trump to talk to him about US submarines, on the grounds that he thought Australia should buy them.
According to Mr. Pratt’s account cited by ABC News sources, Mr. Trump was “excited” about the prospect. He would have leaned toward his counterpart and revealed to him two top-secret pieces of information: the number of nuclear warheads it could carry and how close it could be to Russian submarines without being detected.
The billionaire reportedly rushed this information to at least 45 people, including six journalists, three former Australian prime ministers and at least 11 of his employees.
A former employee of Donald Trump, who heard about the meeting between the two businessmen, told investigators that Anthony Pratt was actually repeating what the former president had told him even before leaving Mar-a-Lago.
The allegations reported by ABC are not, at this time, part of the accusations against Donald Trump over his handling of classified and state secret documents that he took to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House.
A spokesperson for the former president told ABC News that the allegations “lack context.”
He added: “President Trump has done nothing wrong. He has always insisted on truth and transparency and acted appropriately, in accordance with the law.”
It is noteworthy that Australia agreed with the United States last March to purchase at least three American Virginia-class submarines, with the aim of developing its own fleet of nuclear submarines.
