NATIONAL SECURITY/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump said on Thursday [2-23-17] he wants to ensure the U.S. nuclear arsenal is at the ‘top of the pack,’ saying the United States has fallen behind in its weapons capacity…
In his first comments about the U.S. nuclear arsenal since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump was asked about a December tweet in which he said the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capacity ‘until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.’
Trump said in the interview he would like to see a world with no nuclear weapons but expressed concern that the United States has ‘fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity.’
‘I am the first one that would like to see … nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power.’
‘It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack,’ Trump said.”
–Steve Holland, “Trump wants to make sure U.S. nuclear arsenal at ‘top of the pack’,” Reuters.com, Feb. 24, 2017