Donald Trump Jr. Questioning ‘Sketchy’ Details About Missing Titanic Sub

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Donald Trump Jr. raised questions. about the ongoing search and rescue mission for the missing Titanic submersible, saying all the details that have come out about the expedition are “fuzzy and fuzzy.”

“Literally everything I’ve seen about this missing submarine is crazy and sketchy AF… almost none of it makes any sense whatsoever. How long before we find other external factors that are driving it this yet???” Trump wrote to Truth Social on Wednesday.

The search for the submarine continues more than four days after the ship, which was carrying passengers from the wreck of the Titanic, lost contact with a chartered support ship on Sunday morning. On Wednesday, the Coast Guard announced that the search will expand “exponentially” as officials rush to find the five people on the sub before its 96-hour oxygen supply runs out. There are currently five vessels searching for the submersible and five more are expected to join.

Details Trump Jr. may be referring to include the size (which OceanGate called “spacious”, but @alex_abads declared the opposite on Twitter), the inability to escape the pod or even open the hatch from the inside (which left many online giddy ), the fact that the submersible is operated with a simple gaming controller, or the rumor that the Titan has lost contact with its mothership before.

It’s not just Trump Jr. the Republican who is skeptical of the developments surrounding the sub. On Tuesday, Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas said he had heard “disturbing reports” that Coast Guard officials were blocking or delaying the deployment of a critical rescue vessel called the Magellan.

See Donald Trump Jr, one of candidate Trump’s sons, as he speaks from the podium during the Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio, July 19, 2016. David Hume Kennerly/Getty

“If true, this is deeply concerning,” Crenshaw tweeted. “We must do everything we can to assist in this rescue effort and I have sent an official request for Magellan to be deployed as soon as possible.”

The submersible has also prompted several conspiracy theories, including one suggesting that orcas were involved in the vessel’s disappearance and another that weather played a factor. Both of those theories have been rejected.

The Titanic wreck lies in two parts about 12,500 feet below the surface southeast of Newfoundland, Canada, but even some of the most experienced divers can only swim a few hundred feet below the surface. The current record for the deepest underwater rescue is 1,575 feet below the surface. That survivor, 85-year-old Roger Mallinson, told Newsweek that his only advice to those trapped was to make noise to attract rescuers.

Reports also emerged, after the ship’s disappearance, that OceanGate Expeditions, the private company that operates the missing sub, had ignored warnings from industry experts and employees about the dangers of its operations.

Will Kohnen, the chair of the Marine Technology Society’s Submarine Committee, told NPR that the missing sub “didn’t surprise” those who knew about OceanGate before this week’s mission.

“We have been aware of this project for some time and had some concerns,” Kohnen said.

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