President Donald Trump frequently lauds the U.S. military, has appointed generals to four key administration posts and regularly talks up the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

But does that mean he understands nuclear strategy — its aims, risks and costs? There are worrying signs that, when it comes to nukes, Trump is in way over his head.

During the presidential campaign he indicated he didn’t know what the nuclear triad was (it's the combination of air-, ground- and sea-launched atomic weapons) and NBC News just revealed that Trump expressed a desire for more weapons.

Tens of thousands more.

So it might not be so surprising that the president often talks about modernizing U.S. nuclear weapons. Which is not the key point. More reliability, not more power, is what matters most.

In August, the Pyongyang regime even threatened to lob ballistic missiles at the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, prompting Trump to threaten back on Twitter: "My first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before."

My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017

It's safe to say the United States will not be adding tens of thousands of new atomic warheads. But are existing American nuclear weapons really “more powerful” and more modern than ever before, as Trump claimed? Just as important, is bigger even better in the context of nuclear warfare?

"The U.S. arsenal is pretty much the same today as it was when Trump took office," Hans M. Kristensen, the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, told NBC News.