President Donald Trump has denied reports that said he wanted to nuke hurricanes in order to stop them before they hit the United States.

Trump, who is attending a G-7 summit in France, tweeted early on Monday pointing out that the reports which said he wanted to blow up large hurricanes with nuclear weapons were fake.

"The story by Axios that President Trump wanted to blow up large hurricanes with nuclear weapons prior to reaching shore is ridiculous. I never said this. Just more FAKE NEWS!" his tweet said.

Axios, a news website had reported on Sunday that Trump suggested nuking the hurricanes to disrupt them. "I got it. I got it. Why don't we nuke them? They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they're moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can't we do that?" Trump reportedly said at the briefing.

The report had quoted unnamed sources who had attended the briefing along with the president. However, the credibility of the report is now under question after Trump has publicly rubbished the story.

"You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting. People were astonished. After the meeting ended, we thought, 'What the f---? What do we do with this?'" Axios quoted an unnamed source present in the meeting.

The report also quoted a senior Trump administration official supporting his idea saying it was "well-intentioned."

"His goal — to keep a catastrophic hurricane from hitting the mainland — is not bad," the official told Axios. "His objective is not bad."

According to the report, this was not the only time the President had presented such a notion to the national security officials. A 2017 NSC memo describes Trump’s conversation with a senior administrative official, where he asked whether the administration should bomb the hurricanes before they hit the homeland to stop them.

The idea of detonating a nuclear bomb over the eye of a hurricane is not something that Trump has come up with on his own. In fact, the notion dates back to the Eisenhower era, when it was suggested by a government scientist.

However, the idea is considered to be a myth, with scientists agreeing that it won’t work. In a 2016 article titled "Nuking Hurricanes: The Surprising History of a Really Bad Idea," National Geographic said that nuking hurricanes was not a good idea.

The White House has meanwhile refused to comment on the president’s private discussions with the national security team.

President Donald Trump reportedly suggested disrupting hurricanes by dropping a nuclear bomb in the eye of the storm before it could make landfall in the US
President Donald Trump reportedly suggested disrupting hurricanes by dropping a nuclear bomb in the eye of the storm before it could make landfall in the US AFP / Nicholas Kamm