Trump calls for US nuclear supremacy

President says new strategic arms limitation treaty a ‘one-sided’ deal

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to ensure the US nuclear arsenal is at the “top of the pack,” saying the US has fallen behind in its weapons capacity.

In his first comments about the US nuclear arsenal since taking office on January 20, Trump was asked about a December tweet in which he said the US must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capacity “until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”

Trump said in the interview he would like to see a world with no nuclear weapons but expressed concern that the US has “fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity.”

“I am the first one that would like to see ... 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.

“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 said.

Russia has 7,000 warheads and the US 6,800, according to the Ploughshares Fund, an anti-nuclear group.

“Russia and the US have far more weapons than is necessary to deter nuclear attack by the other or by another nuclear-armed country,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the independent Arms Control Association nonprofit group.

The new strategic arms limitation treaty, known as New START, between the US and Russia requires that by February 5, 2018, both countries must limit their arsenals of strategic nuclear weapons to equal levels for 10 years.

The treaty permits both countries to have no more than 800 deployed and non-deployed land-based intercontinen- tal and submarine-launched ballistic missile launchers and heavy bombers equipped to carry nuclear weapons, and contains equal limits on other nuclear weapons.

Analysts have questioned whether Trump wants to abrogate New START or would begin deploying other warheads. In the interview, Trump called New START “a one-sided deal.”

“Just another bad deal that the country made, whether it’s START, whether it’s the Iran deal ... We’re going to start making good deals,” he said.