WATCH: Trump Blurts Out Existence of ‘Super-Duper Missiles’ That Defense Department Didn’t Want to Talk About

President Donald Trump blurted out the existence of a “super-duper missile” during a photo op, and the Department of Defense spent a good part of its day trying not to comment on the alleged weapons.

During a ceremony to present the Space Force flag on Friday, Trump began to riff on military equipment, telling reporters “We’re building, right now, incredible military equipment at a level that nobody has ever seen before. We have no choice. We have to do it — with the adversaries we have out there. We have a — I call it the ‘super-duper missile.’ And I heard the other night, 17 times faster than what they have right now.”

He went on to add that “you take the fastest missile we have right now — you’ve heard Russia has five times, and China is working on five or six times. We have one 17 times. And it’s just gotten the go-ahead. Seventeen times faster, if you can believe that, General. That’s something, right? Seventeen times faster than what we have right now. Fastest in the world by a factor of almost three.”

Those remarks prompted reporters to ask about the mysterious weapons. First, at a Defense Department briefing, a reporter asked “what’s the super-duper missile that the President just referred to in the White House at the Oval Office?”

“I’m going to have to refer you back to the — the White House on that. I don’t have any information to give you on that,” Jonathan Hoffman, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, haltingly replied, then added with a laugh “Do you want to try a different one since that was kind of…”

Then, Bloomberg White House correspondent Justin Sink asked White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany about the missiles during Friday afternoon’s White House briefing.

“The President, earlier in the Oval Office, said that the Pentagon was developing a, quote, ‘super-duper missile.’ The Pentagon was asked about that shortly after the President made his remarks and declined to comment, referring it back to the White House. So I’m wondering if you can say what the President was describing?” Sink asked.

“Yeah. I would just refer you back to the President’s remarks and the Pentagon. I don’t have any new information on that at this point,” McEnany replied.

Eventually, after all the attention from Trump’s remark, Hoffman tweeted “The Department of Defense is working on developing a range of hypersonic missiles to counter our adversaries.”

The Department of Defense is working on developing a range of hypersonic missiles to counter our adversaries. https://t.co/ATb1XLHFtl

— Jonathan Rath Hoffman (@ChiefPentSpox) May 15, 2020

Hoffman did not confirm or deny the existence of a missile with the specific capabilities Trump revealed.

Watch the clips above via the Trump administration and C-SPAN.

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