--- title: White House: Trump's Nuclear Policy Would Be 'Catastrophic' description: The White House denounced Donald Trump's comments that Japan and South Korea might need to obtain nuclear weapons for self-defense canonical: https://time.com/4278744/white-house-donald-trump-nuclear-plan-catastrophic-japan-south-korea/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-31T23:15:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:23:38.778Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump's Nuclear Policy Would Be 'Catastrophic,' White House Says og:description: Trump has said Japan and South Korea might need nuclear weapons for self-defense og:url: https://time.com/4278744/white-house-donald-trump-nuclear-plan-catastrophic-japan-south-korea/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae330fee1906eacf/69888d45428a9e6115cd2093/donald-trump-nuclear.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaigns Near Green Bay, Wisconsin og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's Nuclear Policy Would Be 'Catastrophic,' White House Says twitter:description: Trump has said Japan and South Korea might need nuclear weapons for self-defense twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae330fee1906eacf/69888d45428a9e6115cd2093/donald-trump-nuclear.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump's Nuclear Policy Would Be 'Catastrophic,' White House Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Mar 31, 2016 11:15 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to guests during a campaign rally at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel on March 30 in Appleton, Wisconsin. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to guests during a campaign rally at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel on March 30 in Appleton, Wisconsin.Scott Olson—Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Mar 31, 2016 11:15 PM UTC The White House [denounced Donald Trump’s comments](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-denounces-trumps-asian-nuclear-idea-as-catastrophic/2016/03/31/c80226d4-f760-11e5-a3ce-f06b5ba21f33%5Fstory.html) that Japan and South Korea might need to obtain nuclear weapons for self-defense on Thursday, calling the idea “catastrophic.” “The entire premise of American foreign policy as it relates to nuclear weapons for the last 70 years is to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons to additional states,” deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said when asked to respond to Trump’s comments, the [Washington _Post_ reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-denounces-trumps-asian-nuclear-idea-as-catastrophic/2016/03/31/c80226d4-f760-11e5-a3ce-f06b5ba21f33%5Fstory.html). “It would be catastrophic were the United States to shift its position and indicate that we support somehow the proliferation of nuclear weapons to additional countries.” President Barack Obama is currently holding the [Nuclear Security Summit](http://time.com/4278085/nuclear-summit-terrorism-climate-change-barack-obama/) aimed at curbing nuclear proliferation and preventing terrorist groups from obtaining nuclear weapons. **Read more:** [Donald Trump Explains Why His Foreign Policy Is So Vague](http://time.com/4273054/donald-trump-specific-foreign-policy/) Trump has said Japan and South Korea might need to have their own nuclear arsenals if the U.S. is unable to defend them against North Korea. “It’s a position that we have to talk about,” Trump said in an [interview with the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/us/politics/donald-trump-transcript.html?smid=tw-nytpolitics&smtyp=cur) last week. “If the United States keeps on its path, its current path of weakness, they’re going to want to have that anyway with or without me discussing it, because I don’t think they feel very secure in what’s going on with our country.” \[Read more in [The Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-denounces-trumps-asian-nuclear-idea-as-catastrophic/2016/03/31/c80226d4-f760-11e5-a3ce-f06b5ba21f33%5Fstory.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4278744/white-house-donald-trump-nuclear-plan-catastrophic-japan-south-korea/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4278744/white-house-donald-trump-nuclear-plan-catastrophic-japan-south-korea/"},"headline":"Trump's Nuclear Policy Would Be 'Catastrophic,' White House Says","datePublished":"2016-03-31T23:15:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:23:38.778Z","description":"Trump has said Japan and South Korea might need nuclear weapons for self-defense","url":"https://time.com/4278744/white-house-donald-trump-nuclear-plan-catastrophic-japan-south-korea/","keywords":["White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae330fee1906eacf/69888d45428a9e6115cd2093/donald-trump-nuclear.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae330fee1906eacf/69888d45428a9e6115cd2093/donald-trump-nuclear.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaigns Near Green Bay, Wisconsin","caption":"GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaigns Near Green Bay, Wisconsin","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4278744/white-house-donald-trump-nuclear-plan-catastrophic-japan-south-korea/","name":"Trump's Nuclear Policy Would Be 'Catastrophic,' White House Says"}}]}] ```