--- title: Presidential Debate: Donald Trump's Long History With Nukes description: "It would take an hour and a half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles," he said in 1984 canonical: https://time.com/4437770/presidential-debate-donald-trump-nuclear-negotiator/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-27T02:40:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T12:33:10.000Z article:section: History og:title: Donald Trump's Concern About Nuclear Weapons Dates Back Decades og:description: "It would take an hour and a half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles," he said in 1984 og:url: https://time.com/4437770/presidential-debate-donald-trump-nuclear-negotiator/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a78b8f86304d432/6988a7a2428a9e6270cd465f/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-32.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL First Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump's Concern About Nuclear Weapons Dates Back Decades twitter:description: "It would take an hour and a half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles," he said in 1984 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a78b8f86304d432/6988a7a2428a9e6270cd465f/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-32.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump's Concern About Nuclear Weapons Dates Back Decades  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:33 PM UTCPublished: Sep 27, 2016 2:40 AM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the presidential debate with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the presidential debate with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016.Drew Angerer—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:33 PM UTCPublished: Sep 27, 2016 2:40 AM UTC At the[ first Presidential debate](http://time.com/4508703/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-hofstra-long-island/?xid=homepage) on Monday night, Republican candidate stressed the importance of nuclear proliferation as an issue that will face the next President of the United States. This is[ not the first time](http://time.com/4437089/donald-trump-nuclear-weapons-nukes/?xid=homepage) the nuclear issue has come up during the 2016 campaign—but the campaign trail is far from the only time he’s spoken out on the topic. In fact, in the mid-1980s, as the Soviet Union and the United States [struggled](http://time.com/vault/issue/1986-01-06/page/70/) to come to an agreement on nuclear policy, with the never-ratified Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II agreement nearing its expiration, someone surprising weighed in on the problem: Donald Trump, who told the press that he would do a good job as the U.S. negotiator.  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the presidential debate with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. Joe Raedle—Pool/AFP/Getty Images “\[The negotiation is\] something that somebody should do that knows how to negotiate and not the kind of representatives that I have seen in the past,” he[ told](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/11/15/donald-trump-holding-all-the-cards-the-tower-the-team-the-money-the-future/8be79254-7793-4812-a153-f2b88e81fa54/) a reporter in 1984\. “It would take an hour and a half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles. … I think I know most of it anyway.” “Some people have an ability to negotiate,” Trump further [told](https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19850224&id=ua4xAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FuUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6714,4356486) an Associated Press writer in 1985, during an interview largely about football. “It’s an art you’re basically born with. Either you have it or you don’t. I feel for the first time in many years we’re in a position to negotiate a really good treaty. I’ve been involved in studying the issue for years. I feel very knowledgeable about the issue.” [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) Trump did not serve as the negotiator. And, though the agreement did expire, a new agreement was reached in 1991. But the nuclear issue is far from the only one that proves that, in several area’s, Trump’s interests have been consistent since the 1980s. In 1987, for example, Trump spent a reported $94,801 on newspaper ads to publish an “open letter” on U.S. foreign policy. He [said](http://time.com/vault/issue/1987-09-14/page/49/) that week that he wasn’t planning to run for office, but many saw the letter as an indication that he had his eye on the coming election The [open letter,](http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1987/09/02/issue.html) which declared that “there’s nothing wrong with America’s Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can’t cure,” went on to [echo](http://nypost.com/2016/03/26/fight-isis-or-we-stop-buying-oil-trump-would-consider-ending-purchases-from-saudi-arabia/) several [themes](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/27/the-100-plus-times-donald-trump-has-assured-us-the-united-states-is-a-laughingstock/) that have featured in his 2016 campaign: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4437770/presidential-debate-donald-trump-nuclear-negotiator/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4437770/presidential-debate-donald-trump-nuclear-negotiator/"},"headline":"Donald Trump's Concern About Nuclear Weapons Dates Back Decades","datePublished":"2016-09-27T02:40:37.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T12:33:10.000Z","description":"\"It would take an hour and a half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles,\" he said in 1984","url":"https://time.com/4437770/presidential-debate-donald-trump-nuclear-negotiator/","keywords":["politics","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a78b8f86304d432/6988a7a2428a9e6270cd465f/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-32.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a78b8f86304d432/6988a7a2428a9e6270cd465f/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-32.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL First Debate","caption":"Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Face Off In First Presidential Debate At Hofstra University","creditText":"Drew Angerer—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/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4437770/presidential-debate-donald-trump-nuclear-negotiator/","name":"Donald Trump's Concern About Nuclear Weapons Dates Back Decades"}}]}] ```