Trump On Nukes: ‘Let It Be An Arms Race’

By Ted Goodman

President-elect Donald Trump responded to questions regarding America’s nuclear arsenal Friday morning, telling “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, “Let it be an arms race, we will outmatch them at every pass.”

The president-elect doubled down on his call for the United States to expand its nuclear capability, a message he made clear via Twitter Thursday.

The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016

Trump himself did not appear on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Brzezinski apparently spoke with the upcoming 45th president during a commercial break.

“So this just happened,” Brzezinski interrupted as Scarborough started to discuss Trump’s pick for White House press secretary, Sean Spicer. (Scarborough Drops Truth Bomb On Dems: Your ‘Political Landscape Looks Grim’)

Scarborough then said, “He [Spicer] just left, but he was on the phone with the president-elect and Brzezinski asked the president elect while we had the opportunity, what his position was on trying to clarify the tweet yesterday regarding the nuclear arsenal and the President-elect told you what?”

Brzezinski responded, saying that Trump told her, “Let it be an arms race, we will outmatch them at every pass, and outlast the all.”

A policy to expand America’s nuclear capabilities would reverse efforts by presidents of both parties in recent decades to decrease America’s reliance on nuclear capabilities in an effort to reduce the number of nuclear weapons at home and around the globe.