President Trump said in an interview that aired Sunday that he would like to cut military spending but couldn’t do it now.
The president denied that he said he wanted to cut military spending despite his recent suggestions that the US, Russia, and China could work out a three-way deal to slash their military budgets in half.
“I never said cut, not in these days. I’d love to cut defense spending but not now, because you have China, you have Russia, you have a lot of problems out there,” Trump said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
The president has backed a House GOP budget plan that would increase the military budget by $100 billion and has also ordered the development of a massive new missile defense system for the US, dubbed the “Iron Dome for America,” which will come with a huge price tag.
In the interview, Trump acknowledged that he has been talking about the cost and the risk of nuclear weapons.
“What I have said is that we spend a lot of money on nuclear missiles, nuclear weapons. The level of destruction is beyond anything that you can even imagine. It’s just bad that everybody has to spend all this money on something that if it’s used, it’s probably the end of the world,” he said.
The president has suggested several times that he could work with Russia and China on a deal to “denuclearize.” He said last week that it would be “great if everybody would get rid of their nuclear weapons.
As things stand, the state of arms control is not looking promising as only one treaty remains between the US and Russia, the New START, and it’s due to expire next year with no replacement.
The Trump administration’s push to end the war in Ukraine and engage in diplomacy with Russia could lead to arms control talks, but Moscow has also made clear that Trump’s “Iron Dome for America” could start a new arms race.
