Rep. Crowley: Trump's North Korea nuclear button tweet is 'adolescent behavior' at best

• Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley says President Trump's tweet comparing nuclear arsenals with North Korea's Kim Jong Un is "par for the course."
• "People are exhausted" watching Trump "acting like a child" in public, Crowley says.
• Some have sounded alarms over Trump's tweet, but Crowley says "you really can't believe everything he's saying anyway."

President Donald Trump's incendiary tweet taunting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's nuclear firepower stoked the ire of politicians and pundits alike. To U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley, it's just "par for the course."

"This is adolescent at best," the New York Democrat said Wednesday on CNBC's "Squawk Box." After more than a year of the president "acting like a child," Crowley said, the American people are fatigued and desensitized by Trump's statements.

"People are exhausted, they're tired. I have friends and relatives who misguidedly voted for the president," he said. "But I think even they're tired of it. They don't want to talk about it anymore."

Trump's tweet came Tuesday evening in response to reports of Kim's warning that the "nuclear button is always on the desk of my office."

"North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times,'" Trump tweeted. "Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"

Trump tweet: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the "Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times." Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!

The tweet drew an immediate reaction from pundits, journalists and politicos.

David Frum tweet: Not in a mood for Twitter jokes. This is dark & dangerous. I shudder for every parent of a son or daughter in uniform - and for us all.

Eliot Cohen tweet: Spoken like a petulant ten year old. But one with nuclear weapons - for real - at his disposal. How responsible people around him, or supporting him, can dismiss this or laugh it off is beyond me.

Ted Lieu tweet: Thankfully there is no actual #NuclearButton that @POTUS can just press. It's a process that requires the Secretary of Defense to execute the nuclear order. That's why we should all be praying for James Mattis to have good health, wisdom and rationality.

Crowley, however, didn't appear especially phased. "It's Donald Trump doing it, first of all," he said. "You really can't believe everything he's saying anyway."