Britain is a what? A nuclear power you say?

According to John Bolton, former disgruntled, revenge-taking national security adviser, Donald Trump had no idea that Britain possessed nuclear weapons. Total surprise to him when he was told. Please all my American friends don't take this personally, but this doesn't surprise me. I bet if you carried out a nationwide survey in America and asked: "Is Britain a nuclear power? " and a second question: "Has the US sold nuclear missiles to Britain?" the majority of respondents would reply No and No. I always recall a long time ago I was invited to spend two weeks in the US as part of the State Department's international visitors programme. One of the components of the programme was to spend time with American families to get accustomed to the American way of life or something ike that. One of the families I stayed with and was royally looked after was a young couple in Seattle. Over dinner one night we started chatting about the US and UK defence policies - yes, very highbrow - and I mentioned that we, the Brits, had Polaris submarine-launched nuclear missiles which had been supplied by the US government The couple nearly fell off their chairs. "What?" they spluttered. "You have Polaris? How come?" Well, of course the so-called Polaris sales agreement was agreed between the UK and US in April 1963 when President John F Kennedy was in the White House and Harold Macmillan was UK prime minister. It was one of the unique elements of the special relationship between the two countries. The sale of nuclear technology to the UK - the actual warhead was designed by the UK's Atomic Weapons Establishment - led to the Royal Navy's four Polaris missile submarines carrying out round-the-clock deterrent patrols throughout the Cold War, and today the four Trident missile submarines - missiles again supplied by the US and the warhead designed by the UK - perform the same patrol duties. So, yes, thanks to the US, Britain has had nuclear weapons for 60 years. Britain is a permanent member of the UN Security Council BECAUSE it has nuclear weapons. The fact that Trump, according to Bolton, didn't know that is extraordinary. In fact so extraordinary I'm not sure I believe it, although the president has of course demonstrated before that he has some gaps in his knowledge. Bolton claims Trump thought Finland was in Russia. Oops, Mr President, I doubt plucky old Finland will ever forgive you for that lapse.