Plan B Forum

'Let it be an arms race': Donald Trump reportedly doubles down on nuclear weapons expansion

Asked on Friday morning for clarification of his remarks about America’s need to “strengthen and expand” its nuclear weapons, President-elect Donald Trump said: “Let it be an arms race.”

Trump spoke by phone to MSNBC Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski, who reported the conversation with co-host Joe Scarborough. Both spoke while wearing pyjamas and slippers and sitting in front of a roaring fire.

On Thursday, Trump used Twitter to say the US “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes”.

As well as the opaque meaning of the remark, subsequent debate centered on whether it was prompted by similar words from Russian president Vladimir Putin.

He said on Thursday: “We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defence systems.”

A statement from a member of the incoming White House press team, communications director Jason Miller, failed to clarify the issue.

Trump had “emphasized the need to improve and modernize our deterrent capability as a vital way to pursue peace through strength”, Miller said. He later told Reuters Trump was not advocating the use of nuclear weapons and that the tweet should not be read as a new policy proposal.

In a press conference on Friday, Putin said he saw “nothing unusual” in Trump’s comments. The Russian president added that any arms race was caused by the US pulling out of the Anti-Ballistic Missiles Treaty – under George W Bush in 2002 – and said: “If someone is stimulating a nuclear arms race it’s not us.”

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.

“And outlast them all,” Brzezinski repeated, wonderingly.

“You can put that down as breaking news,” Scarborough said.

Trump’s reported remark contradicted comments to the same network from the incoming White House press secretary, Republican National Committee communications chief Sean Spicer.

He told NBC Trump would not allow an arms race, because he would stop other countries from increasing their stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

“He’s going to ensure that other countries get the message that he’s not going to sit back and allow that,” Spicer said. “And what’s going to happen is they will come to their senses, and we will all be just fine.”