The Trump administration, and plenty of Congressional Republicans, are under fire at the moment from pretty much every facet of society. This is for two very broad reasons – namely, they are doing things that are either genuinely terrifying or batshit crazy.

Speaking of crazy, Representative Trent Franks – an Arizona Republican – popped over to the CNN recently to do something that’s demonstrably unpopular with the American public. He defended President Trump’s $25 billion US-Mexico border wall, claiming that it’s needed to keep the nation safe and secure from all those Mexican maniacs.

As highlighted by Gizmodo, this gentleman then said something quite jarring.

“Ya know, we sometimes used to make the point that if someone wanted to smuggle in a dangerous weapon, even a nuclear weapon, into America, how would they do it?” he began. “And the suggestion was made, ‘Well, we’ll simply hide it in a bale of marijuana.’”

Hold on. So Mr Franks is saying that the Great Wall of Trump will stop nuclear weapons, concealed inside massive piles of illegal marijuana, sneaking into the US? This strikes us as curious.

^{The unusual exchange on CNN. tpmtv via YouTube}

First off – why not pick something legal to hide the nuclear weapons in, rather than something sniffer dogs and armed patrols are searching for along that border crossing? Do nuclear weapons tend to get into America via Mexico? Would a warhead even fit inside a “bale” of marijuana – and doesn’t it normally come in bags?

It’s not exactly clear who Franks is referring to when he says that “we sometimes used to make the point.” As Talking Points Memo helpfully point out, this is an argument he has shamelessly used before back in 2012, so perhaps he’s talking about himself or, worryingly, several other lawmakers (including one Democrat) that’s also made the baseless suggestion.

Is marijuana, as some of these contemporaries have claimed, a good radiation shield for nuclear warheads? Can it hide radioactive material from military inspection? Sure, a little. But you know what else works just as well? Any other type of crop or plant.

Let’s be clear – this is insane. That didn’t stop one British tabloid going with the grandiose headline: “Fears mount Mexican drug lords will help ISIS smuggle NUKE into the US hidden inside bales of marijuana.”

You know, it’d actually be easier to smuggle a nuke wrapped in marijuana from Canada’s British Columbia to America’s Washington State. Medicinal use of the drug is legal in both the respective province and state, after all, and not even the most die-hard Republican suspects their nice neighbors from the north of plotting their doom.

So maybe Franks is focusing on the wrong border. Forget the Mexican cartels – what is Trudeau hiding behind that handsome visage of his?