BREAKING: Trump to #morningjoe on the nukes tweet: ‘Let it be an arms race’ https://t.co/X9FMNtgKPK
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) December 23, 2016
On Friday morning, Donald Trump reportedly doubled down on his nuclear weapons expansion policy in an unaired phone call to Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski. According to Brzezinski, Trump declared, “Let it be an arms race.” Trump’s sound bite comes after he voiced his desire to “strengthen and expand” the U.S.’s nuclear weapons.
A Donald Trump tweet in most instances should be taken with a grain of salt, as the president-elect wears his heart on his Twitter page. But his comments regarding nuclear weapons have some feeling uneasy. In August, Trump reportedly asked an advisor why we can’t use nukes if we have them. His new comments are even more perplexing. The two hosts discussed the odd conversation:
“On MSNBC, speaking to camera, Scarborough said: ‘Mica asked the president-elect while we had the opportunity … to clarify the tweet yesterday regarding the nuclear arsenal. And the president-elect told you what?’
‘Let it be an arms race,’ Brzezinski said. ‘We will outmatch them at every pass.’
‘And outlast them all,’ Scarborough added.”
Trump’s comments come as Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia also needs to expand its nuclear prowess. It should be noted Putin’s comments came a few hours before Trump’s tweet on Thursday. And Putin followed up his statement, telling reporters that the U.S. created conditions for an arms race: “If someone is stimulating a nuclear arms race it’s not us.”
Additionally, Trump’s newly anointed press secretary Sean Spicer has stepped in to stress that his boss would not be having an arms race. Spicer says Trump just wanted to prevent other countries from loading up their stockpiles. It’s an interesting situation because you don’t know who to believe.
(Via Morning Joe & The Guardian)