--- title: Donald Trump: U.S. Needs Stronger Nuclear Arsenal description: President-elect Donald Trump says the U.S. must build up its nuclear capability one day after Russian President Putin made a similar speech. canonical: https://time.com/4616711/donald-trump-nuclear-weapons/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-22T18:01:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:49.154Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Wants to Build Up America’s Nuclear Arsenal og:description: After his meeting with Pentagon Brass, Putin speech og:url: https://time.com/4616711/donald-trump-nuclear-weapons/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt113dd9feda4509e8/6988b3d5428a9e7562cd557c/trump-nuclear-weapons.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Wants to Build Up America’s Nuclear Arsenal twitter:description: After his meeting with Pentagon Brass, Putin speech twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt113dd9feda4509e8/6988b3d5428a9e7562cd557c/trump-nuclear-weapons.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Wants to Build Up America’s Nuclear Arsenal > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=6b8c3b0a-448b-457d-9e4c-109c573cb177&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Here’s What Donald Trump Has Said About Nuclear Weapons [Watch (HLS stream): Here’s What Donald Trump Has Said About Nuclear Weapons](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ryN0TFt3.m3u8) (1:13)  _Published 2016-08-03. Donald Trump’s campaign on Wednesday denied a report that said the Republican presidential nominee had repeatedly asked an international foreign policy expert why the U.S. couldn’t use nuclear weapons._ by [Zeke J Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke J Miller Dec 22, 2016 6:01 PM UTC  US President-elect Donald Trump looks on while speaking during a 'Thank You Tour 2016' rally in Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 16, 2016. US President-elect Donald Trump looks on while speaking during a 'Thank You Tour 2016' rally in Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 16, 2016. Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images by [Zeke J Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke J Miller Dec 22, 2016 6:01 PM UTC Donald Trump called for a nuclear arms build-up Thursday, a day after meeting with top Pentagon brass and Russian President Vladimir Putin made his own speech calling for his country to strengthen its arsenal. In a tweet sent while on vacation at his Mar-a-Lago estate, the president-elect said, “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” Trump met with eight generals and admirals Wednesday as part of a briefing on U.S. military procurement needs, including Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein, the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration. It is unclear whether Trump’s comments reflect a desire to change U.S. policy, or a reflection of his support for existing U.S. plans to expend nearly $1 trillion over the coming decade on modernizing and upgrading the nation’s aging nuclear arsenal and delivery systems. Trump’s tweet, below, comes hours after Putin delivered a [speech](http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/53571) to his Defense Ministry Board advocating an upgrade of his country’s weapons systems. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/811977223326625792) Putin also pointed to advances in U.S. missile defense technology and ongoing upgrades to American warheads. “These actions create additional risk for Russia, and we cannot fail to respond to them,” he said. At very least, Trump’s comment marks a rhetorical shift from President Barack Obama, who publicly espoused a desire for a nuclear-weapons-free world and entered into a New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) with Russia in 2010 to reduce the number of deployed warheads. But to win support for the treaty Obama had to commit to shift more resources toward modernizing the existing arsenal. In a press conference in April after a nuclear security summit in Washington, Obama warned that balance must be sought to prevent a return to a Cold War-era nuclear arms race. “We do have to guard against, in the interim, ramping up new and more deadly and more effective systems that end up leading to a whole new escalation of the arms race,” he said. Trump has called for strengthening ties with the Russian strongman, and has rejected the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russia was behind hacks into U.S. political organizations during the 2016 campaign. According to Trump spokesman Jason Miller, Trump received the presidential daily briefing Thursday for the second time in as many days. ## Transcript Nuclear, nuclear, nuclear, nuclear, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon, nuclear weapon, nuclear weapon, nuclear weapon. The biggest problem we have today is nuclear, nuclear proliferation, and having some maniac some madman go out And get a nuclear weapon. I hate proliferation. I hate nuclear more than anything. My uncle was a professor at MIT. He used to tell me about nuclear. That's contradictory. No. No. At some point we have to say you know what. We're better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea. Can you tell the middle east we're not using a nuclear weapon on anybody? I would never say that. I would never take any of my cards off the table. How about Europe? We won't use it in Europe. I'm not going to take it off the table for anybody. You might use it in Europe? No. I don't think so, but I'm not taking it. Why not just say it? I'm using a nuclear weapon in Europe. I am not I am not taking cards of the table. They always say Trump wants Japan to go nuclear, I don't. I really don't. But listen, when you have North Korea and you have Japan, and they're very close to each other, and frankly, we're sort of semi involved we don't wanna be involved At some point it could happen anyway. They said I want Japan to nuke. 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