Trump Seeks More Nukes, Claims US Has ‘Fallen Behind’

Non-Proliferation Group: US Already Has Top Arsenal in the World

In a new interview with Reuters, President Trump complained that the US has “fallen behind” in the nuclear arms race, and that he intends to determine the US returns to “top of the pack” in their arsenal. This is the second time since the November election that Trump has suggested increases in US nuclear arms spending with an eye toward surpassing every other nation.

The US and Russia have long had comparable numbers of warheads. but as the the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation was quick to point out, the US already has the larger deployed arsenal of the two, and is thus already the “top of the pack” without any new investments.

Other anti-proliferation NGOs were similarly critical of the talk of expanding the arsenal, saying that it would mark “an alarming reversal” of decades of effort to reduce the size of nuclear arsenals the world over.

The comments seem to put Trump on the side of those who have been angling for a massive increase in US nuclear weapons spending with an eye toward “modernization,” a program which is estimated to cost in excess of $1 trillion over the next 30 years.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.