BIG UPDATE:
Story denounced by Trump and Mattis as completely false
– – – Original Story – – –
It’s looking more and more like Tillerson did in fact refer to Trump as a moron, as many of us suspected, and the reason is because Trump wanted to increase our nuclear weapons arsenal tenfold:
NY POST – President Trump told his national security team that he wanted a tenfold increase in the US nuclear arsenal, a request that shocked military officials and led Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to refer to him as a “moron,” according to a report on Wednesday.
Trump made the request during a Pentagon briefing this summer when he was shown data detailing the steady reduction of the US nuclear stockpile since the late 1960s, and the president indicated he wanted to reverse that trend, NBC News reported, citing three officials who took part in the meeting.
At the July 20 meeting attended by Tillerson, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a number of White House advisers and Cabinet officials, they tried to explain to the president how an increase would violate existing treaties and international weapons agreements.
It was after the briefing broke up that officials heard Tillerson say Trump is a “moron.”
At the briefing, Trump was shown a chart outlining the history of the US nuclear stockpile over the past 70 years, when it went from a high of about 32,000 nuclear warheads in the 1960s to around 4,000 now.
The president said he wanted the number back on the high end, the report said.
Two officials at the meeting told NBC that Trump not only requested more nuclear weapons, but also additional troops and military equipment.
The requests led his advisers to question the president’s grasp of US nuclear policy.
Experts said while increasing the US nuclear arsenal would violate a number of treaties, it would also set off an international arms race.
“If he were to increase the numbers, the Russians would match him, and the Chinese” would ramp up their nuclear programs, Joe Cirincione, a nuclear expert, told NBC. “There hasn’t been a military mission that’s required a nuclear weapon in 71 years.”
The White House told NBC the nuclear arsenal wasn’t a main topic of the meeting.
Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said the “conversations are privileged.”
So we’re only allowed to get rid of nukes and not build up our arsenal? Sheesh!
Also it might trigger an arms race, but only if China and Russia knew about it! These kind of conversations should never be made public. Trump clearly still has a leaker problem and, because of this report, both China and Russia now know Trump wants to increase our nukes tenfold.
Look I generally don’t have a problem building up our military forces and equipment — or our nukes. This is not the same world it was 10 years ago and I’d never let some piece of paper stop us from doing so.