Donald Trump's nuclear weapons stance comes under fire from national security expert

Updated

A national security expert and former nuclear weapons officer has attacked Donald Trump's position on nuclear weapons and deterrence, saying the presidential candidate's reported comments are "so damn dangerous".

Mr Trump had asked a foreign-policy expert "why can't we use" nuclear weapons, according to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, who said he spoke to the expert.

"I'll be very careful here. Several months ago, a foreign policy expert, on the international level, went to advise Donald Trump, and three times he asked about the use of nuclear weapons," Scarborough said on his program Morning Joe.

"Three times he asked. At one point, 'If we have them, why can't we use them?'" Scarborough continued.

John Noonan, who has advised both Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney on national security, responded to this claim with 20 tweets criticising the Republican nominee's understanding of global politics and the role of nuclear weapons.

"The whole idea behind nuclear deterrence is that you don't use the damn things," he wrote, after mentioning his own training and experience in ICBM facilities.

"The nuke triad, which Trump doesn't have a clue about, has been the single greatest contributor to global peace for decades."

While saying that he does not know if Scarborough's report is true, he said Mr Trump "would be undoing six decades of proven deterrence theory" and would be "so damn dangerous".

Mr Noonan is a director of the Foreign Policy Initiative, which says the United States is "the world's indispensable nation" and rejects isolationist policies.

Previous nuclear comments widely attacked

This is not the first time Mr Trump has been criticised for comments he has made about nuclear weapons.

Towards the end of May, Mr Trump said that if the Islamic State group was to attack the US, he might return fire with a nuke — and that Japan and South Korea should be able to do the same to North Korea.

In response, the White House described his policy as "catastrophic".

"I'm afraid this kind of talk in an election is bluntly irresponsible and is detrimental to our and all of our allies' security posture," US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said.

US deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes said: "It would be catastrophic for the United States to shift its position and indicate that we somehow support the proliferation of nuclear weapons."

President Barack Obama was equally blunt: "The person that made the statements doesn't know much about foreign policy, or nuclear policy or the Korean peninsula or the world generally," he said.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton tore into Mr Trump, calling him "temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility."

"This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes," she said.

On the other hand, North Korea, which has been conducting missile tests increasingly close to Japan, has endorsed Mr Trump for president, calling him "wise".

The endorsement appeared on the North Korean propaganda website DPRK Today after Mr Trump said he would seek to talk to regime leader Kim Jon-un, and that he might withdraw US troops from South Korea if Seoul does not pay more money to the US.

Topics: world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, united-states

First posted