Yesterday, Trump tweeted about how more nuclear weapons are needed, making a lot of people tense and unhappy. Your worries have just doubled down, because Trump has not had a single thought about this, just ran right into things with his brain shut and mouth wide open: now we need an arms race! Gosh, won’t that be fun.
On Friday, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough said President-elect Donald Trump endorsed a nuclear arms race during a brief phone conversation they had with him earlier that morning.
“Mika asked the president-elect when we had the opportunity what his position was on — trying to clarify the tweet yesterday regarding the nuclear arsenal,” Scarborough said, referring to a tweet Trump published on Thursday calling for the United States to “greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”
“And the president-elect told you what?” Scarborough said to Brzezinski.
“Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass,” she replied. “And outlast them all.”
Trump’s statement directly contradicts the spin spokesman Jason Miller offered Thursday afternoon in an effort to downplay Thursday’s tweet — spin that interpreted Trump’s comments as merely warning about “the threat of nuclear proliferation.”
[…]
Trump’s comments Friday indicate Miller had it wrong. The president-elect is actually endorsing a nuclear arms race, not warning about the dangers of one, because he’s confident the United States would somehow always win.
Trump’s position represents a break from the nonproliferation efforts the United States has led for decades. As ThinkProgress detailed last spring, international nonproliferation agreements reduced the number of operational warheads in the world from a high of 64,452 in 1986 to 10,315 in 2015. The president-elect’s statements suggest that downward trend will come to an end.
Friday is far from the first time Trump said reckless things about nuclear weapons. During an interview last March with Chris Matthews, Trump said he was open to using nukes if the situation called for it and questioned why we’d make them if we never intended to use them. During a Fox News interview the next day, Trump wouldn’t even rule out the possibility of using nukes in Europe.
“Europe is a big place,” Trump said. “I’m not going to take cards off the table. We have nuclear capability.”
“Europe is a big place.” The sheer idiocy of this man makes me despair. Trump is the compleat ignoramus, an Ignoramus’s Ignoramus. No attention span. No knowledge. No ability to think. No mindfulness. He doesn’t read, at all. No books, no newspapers, nothing. He “skims, glances”. Christ, we are so fucked.
In response to a subsequent question about what steps might stand in the way of Trump using nukes if he becomes president, Hayden said, “The system is designed for speed and decisiveness. It’s not designed to debate the decision.”
That’s reassuring. (For the sarcasm impaired: heavy sarcasm.)
Via Think Progress.
Impeachment on inauguration day. Jail.
Ice Swimmer #1
That would be nice but I think you’re more likely to get a pony.
or a flying pig
Ice Swimmer:
Oh, how I wish. It’s the only way to keep all people safe. I just can’t get past that “Europe is a big place” isht. What are the odds that he thinks Europe is all one place, one amorphous country?
What were all the Trump voters doing when reports came out months before the election that he had on multiple occasions asked foreign policy advisers about the point of having nukes if we won’t use them? Did they think a presidential candidate asking such a question will have no bearing on what kind of president he would make?
I want my pony and I’m moving back to Canada. I’m reserving the Diefenbunker for me and my own, but y’all are welcome to join us.
Truly scary horrifying stuff.
I grew up in the Cold War -- towards its end admittedly. Grew up reading and being deeply moved by things like the story of Sadako and the 100 paper cranes and Children of the Dust* and a short HS play put on by drama classmates of mine about what could happen if The Bomb was dropped.** I’ve visited Hiroshima and the Peace park, Museum.
I fear we’ve gotten way too complacent about what Nuclear WMDs can do.
I really hope that reason prevails and Trump doesn’t end up using them but I’m wondering how he’ll be stopped from doing so. Best hope -- military mutiny and refusal to follow unethical orders? Its just a nightmare scenario and one I’d hoped we’d learnt from and learnt to leave behind us.
In other news, apparently Trump has received a “very nice” Xmas card from Putin. ( http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-24/donald-trump-receives-christmas-letter-from-vladimir-putin/8146496 ) Weird start to an arms race between two totalitarian fascistic leaders. I wonder if Trump’s real (current?) target here is China or Iran or if he’s even got one at all?
* Nuclear apocalypse SF novel by Louise Lawrence. See : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_Dust_(novel) WARNING : wikipage contains spoilers.
** A literal “hard act to follow.” I was the next one who had to perform and was still stunned by it and thus was really shit. I was also doing a comedy sketch so, yeah.
Mr President, we must not allow a mine-shaft gap!