CHINA/G20/MILITARY/NUCLEAR/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Monday [12-3-18] expressed hope that he and the presidents of China and Russia might jointly agree to scale back defense spending, writing on Twitter that he was ‘certain’ that such talks would take place and saying the amount of money the U.S. spends on defense is ‘crazy’…Trump’s tweet comes on the heels of G-20 summit, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and had an informal talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A formal, bilateral meeting with Putin had initially been scheduled for Trump’s G-20 trip but was canceled in the wake of Russian military aggression against Ukraine. The U.S. president did not outline what further steps he might take toward ramping down defense spending by three of the world’s largest militaries. He has long pledged to strengthen the U.S. military but has also complained often about spending on a government-wide basis.”
–Rebecca Morin, “Trump wants ‘meaningful halt’ in arms race with Russia, China,” Politico, December 3, 2018 9:27 am