White House: U.S. will not 'yield its supremacy' on nuclear front

The U.S. will not “yield its supremacy” in nuclear capabilities, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Thursday.

Insisting the U.S. has fallen behind, President Donald Trump told Reuters earlier on Thursday that he wants to strengthen America’s nuclear arsenal to ensure it’s at “the top of the pack.”


According to Reuters, Trump groused about Russia’s deployment of a cruise missile violating an arms control treaty and said he would broach the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, if the two meet.

Asked about the report at Thursday's news briefing, Spicer said Trump “was very clear,” although the president was partially quoted throughout the initial version of the article.

“What he was very clear on is that the United States will not yield its supremacy in this area to anybody. That’s what he made very clear in there, and that if other countries have nuclear capabilities, it’ll always be the United States that have the supreme — supremacy and commitment to this,” Spicer said.

“Obviously, that’s not what we’re seeking to do,” he added. “The question that was asked was about other people growing their stockpiles, and I think what he has been clear on is that our goal is to make sure that we maintain America's dominance around the world and that if other countries flout it, we don’t sit back and allow them to grow theirs.”

In a later version of the report, Trump said he would like to see a world without nuclear weapons.

“I am the first one that would like to see everybody — 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,” he said. “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 called the New START treaty with Russia — which calls on the U.S. and Russia to reduce their nuclear arsenals to equal levels by next February for the next decade — a “one-sided deal.”

He also expressed frustration at a recent North Korean test-launch of a ballistic missile, telling Reuters the U.S. is “very angry.” He indicated, however, that the U.S. could accelerate a missile defense system for allies such as Japan and South Korea.

“There’s talks of a lot more than that,” he added. “We’ll see what happens. But it's a very dangerous situation, and China can end it very quickly in my opinion.”

John Tierney, a former congressman and executive director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said Trump's statements "conveniently ignore the facts."

"Every world leader on Earth except for President Trump knows that the United States already has the ‘top of the pack’ nuclear arsenal," Tierney said in a statement. "No U.S. military leader would trade our nuclear weapons for the Russian stockpile, let alone any other nuclear power’s arsenal."

"Further expanding the planned build-up would be costly and destabilizing," he added.

Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, stressed the importance of New START and said the president must work with Russia to "build down" their nuclear arsenal.

"With up to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear weapons allowed under New START and no limits on the tactical nuclear weapons possessed by each side, Russia and the United States have far more weapons than is necessary to deter nuclear attack by the other or by any other nuclear-armed country," Kimball said. "Neither the United States nor Russia comes out of the treaty 'ahead' or 'behind.'"

He added that all five of Trump's most recent predecessors "all negotiated agreements with Russia to reduce their nuclear stockpiles."

"Mr. Trump must get smart and avoid reckless statements or actions that upend decades of successful efforts to reduce bloated nuclear arsenals and renew dangerous U.S. and Russian nuclear competition," Kimball concluded.