‘No cause’ for brand spanking new nukes: Trump floats disarmament talks with China, Russia

President Donald Trump floated a joint assembly with Chinese language President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, claiming he desires all international locations to maneuver towards denuclearization. 

Trump on Thursday instructed reporters he plans to advance these denuclearization talks as soon as “we straighten all of it out” within the Center East and Ukraine, feedback that come because the U.S., Russia and Ukraine are actively pursuing negotiations to finish the battle between Russia and Ukraine. 

“There’s no cause for us to be constructing model new nuclear weapons, we have already got so many,” Trump stated Thursday on the White Home. “You may destroy the world 50 instances over, 100 instances over. And right here we’re constructing new nuclear weapons, they usually’re constructing nuclear weapons.”

“We’re all spending some huge cash that we may very well be spending on different issues which can be really, hopefully, way more productive,” he stated.

The U.S. is projected to spend roughly $756 billion on nuclear weapons between 2023 and 2032, in keeping with a Congressional Price range Workplace report launched in 2023. 

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President Donald Trump floated a joint assembly with Chinese language President Xi Jinping, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, proper, claiming he desires all international locations to maneuver towards denuclearization. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool through Reuters)

Moreover, Trump stated that he was aiming to schedule conferences with Xi and Putin early on in his second time period and request that the international locations minimize their navy budgets in half. The president stated he believes “we will do this,” and remained detached about whether or not he traveled to Xi or Putin, or in the event that they visited the White Home. 

In the meantime, the U.S. has dramatically lowered its nuclear arsenal for the reason that fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. 

The U.S. maintains 3,748 nuclear warheads as of September 2023, a drop from the stockpile of twenty-two,217 nuclear warheads in 1989, in keeping with the Division of Vitality. The company reported the U.S. owned a most of 31,255 nuclear warheads in 1966. 

Compared, Russia has an estimated stockpile of roughly 4,380 nuclear warheads, whereas China boasts an arsenal of roughly 600, in keeping with the Federation of American Scientists. 

Trump on Thursday introduced plans to pursue denuclearization talks with Russia and China.  (AP/Alex Brandon)

Trump’s remarks construct on earlier statements he made in January on the Davos World Financial Discussion board in Switzerland, the place he signaled curiosity in talks on denuclearization with each Russia and China. 

“Large quantities of cash are being spent on nuclear, and the damaging functionality is one thing that we don’t even wish to speak about in the present day, since you don’t wish to hear it,” Trump stated on Jan. 23. 

Earlier talks between the U.S., Russia and China fell by way of in 2020 throughout Trump’s first administration after he refused to signal an extension of the 2010 New Strategic Arms Discount Treaty with Russia to impose limits on every nation’s nuclear arsenals. The treaty in the end was renewed underneath the Biden administration and now expires in 2026, however Russia suspended its participation. 

On Thursday, Trump accused these negotiations of falling aside due what he known as the “rigged election” in 2020. 

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Trump stated that he was aiming to schedule conferences with Xi and Putin early on in his second time period and request that the international locations minimize their navy budgets in half. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua through Getty Pictures)

Trump additionally stated on Thursday that Putin desires peace after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, feedback that adopted back-to-back calls with the Russian chief and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent additionally traveled to Kyiv on Wednesday. 

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Trump, who met with Zelenskyy in New York in September 2024, urged Putin to stop the warfare — or face sanctions — in a put up on Fact Social on Jan. 22. 

“Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous Battle! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE,” Trump wrote. If we do not make a ‘deal’, and shortly, I’ve no different alternative however to place excessive ranges of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on something being offered by Russia to the US, and varied different collaborating international locations.”