Trump's alarming rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons didn't end on Election Day.
The BBC has just reported, in an article headlined "Donald Trump: U.S. Must Greatly Expand Nuclear Weapons," that the President-elect Tweeted on the morning of Dec. 22:
"The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes".
The BBC reported that Trump's Tweet came "hours after President Vladimir Putin said Russia needs to bolster its military nuclear potential."
Politico has also reported on these developments. Its article includes mention of Trump's call, during the campaign, for Japan, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea to be allowed to develop their own nuclear weapons arsenals.
Politico's coverage included the reported language from Putin:
Earlier Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on his country to "strenghten" its nuclear forces.
"We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defense systems," he said, according to multiple news reports.
The BBC's coverage included this figure:
The US has 7,100 nuclear weapons and Russia has 7,300, according to the US nonpartisan Arms Control Association.
This accounts for the vast majority of nuclear weapons in the world. Quoted in a Huffington Post article, former U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-MA), executive director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, put it this way:
“Russia and the U.S. already own over 93 percent of the world’s nuclear arsenal ― more than enough to deter the other and destroy humanity. This is a time for both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to come to their senses. Billions of lives are at stake.”
Many hundreds or even thousands of those nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Russian arsenals remain on hair-trigger alert, 25 years after the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
The Washington Post's coverage of these developments includes this:
Trump’s suggestion would reverse a long-standing policy under both Republican and Democratic presidents to reduce the number and the role of nuclear weapons, said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms control Association. Russia and before it, the Soviet Union, hold a similar policy.
Since President George H.W. Bush’s administration, it has been U.S. policy not to build new nuclear warheads. Under President Obama, the policy has been not to pursue warheads with new military capabilities.
It has been estimated that modernizing the aging nuclear arsenal will cost $1 trillion over 20 years. Currently, the United States has just under 5,000 warheads in its active arsenal, and more than 1,550 deployed strategic warheads.
“If Donald Trump is concerned about the rising costs of the F-35, he will be shocked by the skyrocketing costs of the current plan to modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal,” Kimball said. “Trump and his people need to explain the basis of his cryptic tweet. What does he mean by expand, and at what cost?”
(See Beyond Nuclear's commentary and analysis of the Trump Transition Team's emerging nuclear weapons policies -- as well as its energy, climate, etc. policies -- in light of a leaked 72-item questionnaire it sent to the U.S. Department of Energy.)
For some hopeful and welcome relief from Putin's and Trump's fearful and fearsome proposals, check out this moving Counterpunch article by John LaForge of Nukewatch Wisconsin, "In Sentencing Radical Pacifists, Judge Miles Lord Assailed 'Worship of the Bomb.'"
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The New York Times has also reported on this story, with an article entitled "Trump Says U.S. Should 'Expand Its Nuclear Capability'," and an interactive feature entitled "Trump's Nuclear Weapons Tweet, Translated and Explained."