Donald Trump took aim at NBC news once again, this time over their Nuclear Arsenal report:
President Donald Trump said he wanted what amounted to a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during a gathering this past summer of the nation’s highest ranking national security leaders, according to three officials who were in the room.
Trump’s comments, the officials said, came in response to a briefing slide he was shown that charted the steady reduction of U.S. nuclear weapons since the late 1960s. Trump indicated he wanted a bigger stockpile, not the bottom position on that downward-sloping curve.
According to the officials present, Trump’s advisers, among them the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, were surprised. Officials briefly explained the legal and practical impediments to a nuclear buildup and how the current military posture is stronger than it was at the height of the build-up. In interviews, they told NBC News that no such expansion is planned.
Trump’s reaction:
Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a “tenfold” increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017
With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017
At this point, we have no clue which side is telling the truth in this debacle but we do know that this is an obvious hit piece from members of his administration. They include supposed questions he asked during the meeting and the article is written to make Trump look like an idiot.
Heres the truth, Trump isn’t a military expert. He has great instincts as it pertains to foreign policy and what he wants the military to look like but the reason his generals are there is to fill him in on things he might be uncertain of.
My gut tells me the truth behind this article is that Trump called for the modernization of the Nuclear Arsenal after being informed on what the weakness of the arsenal was today. He realized that expanding in terms of numbers is likely not the best option so he stuck with modernizing the arsenal.
NBC:
Still, officials said they are working to address the president’s concerns within the Nuclear Posture Review, which is expected to be finalized by the end of 2017 or early next year. “He’s all in for modernization,†one official said. “His concerns are the U.S. stopped investing in this.â€
Officials present said that Trump’s comments on a significantly increased arsenal came in response to a briefing slide that outlined America’s nuclear stockpile over the past 70 years. The president referenced the highest number on the chart — about 32,000 in the late 1960s — and told his team he wanted the U.S. to have that many now, officials said.
The U.S. currently has around 4,000 nuclear warheads in its military stockpile, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
The Pentagon is currently undergoing the long-planned posture review. Modernizing the arsenal is a step presidents continuously take that doesn’t put the U.S. in violation of treaty obligations, Cirincione said.
“You don’t get in trouble for modernizing. You do get in trouble if you do one of two things: if you increase the numbers. The strategic weapons are treaty limited. Two, if you build a new type of weapon that is prohibited by a treaty,†he said.
This article was nothing more than a hit piece on President Trump. Whether it is true or not means little to NBC and the sources who they used. The purpose of this article was to defame Trump by not providing context to the reader. Trump asked questions and used those answers to form his opinion on the issue, I guarantee with context Trump wouldn’t look bad at all, of course, that won’t stop NBC from printing nonsense anyway.
