« We have to stop nuclear weapons, » President Donald Trump said earlier this week.
President Donald Trump said he had talked about denuclearization with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the Kremlin chief is « willing to do it » and suggested China could follow suit.
It’s not the first time the Republican has spoken about wanting to rid the world of nuclear weapons. But it’s a tall order—nuclear weapons have hung over the world for eight decades, the foundation of strategy and alliances linking up countries across the globe.
And for the moment, it’s hard to imagine how the president would convince the nuclear powers to surrender their nukes, and what the White House would need to offer up in return.What Has Trump Said?
Denuclearization is « a big game », Trump told reporters on Monday. « But Russia is willing to do it, and I think China is going to be willing to do it. »
« We can’t let nuclear weapons proliferate », the Republican added. « We have to stop nuclear weapons. »
It’s not clear whether Trump hopes to chase a formal denuclearization agreement with major nuclear powers or strict caps on arsenals, but he has repeatedly expressed antipathy toward nuclear weapons.
Yet he also said in 2016, before he took office for his first term, that the U.S. « must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes. » Trump told Reuters in 2017 he would prefer a nuclear weapon-free world, but the U.S. should otherwise be « at the top of the pack. »
The president also pulled the U.S. from a now-defunct treaty with Russia limiting swathes of missile classes with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, including those carrying nuclear warheads in mid-2019. Moscow and Washington had suspended their participation in the agreement months earlier, and have both since deployed weapons that would violate the treaty if it were still in force.
Earlier this year, the Republican said « it would be great if everybody would get rid of their nuclear weapons. »
« I know Russia and us have by far the most », Trump said. « China will have an equal amount within four-five years. It would be great if we could all denuclearize because the power of nuclear weapons is crazy. »
The U.S. and Russia combined control about 87 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons. A total of seven other countries—China, France, the United Kingdom, Israel, Pakistan, India and North Korea—are believed to have nuclear weapons, or acknowledge that they have nuclear arsenals.
Iran has what it describes as a peaceful nuclear program, although international experts say it has enriched uranium that is close to weapons grade. The U.S. joined Israeli attacks on Tehran’s nuclear sites in June.
The U.S., U.K., Russia, China and France said in January 2022—just before Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor Ukraine—that they were committed to working toward a « world without nuclear weapons. »
But currently, there are more than 12,000 nuclear warheads in existence. Analysts say that overall, the number of nuclear warheads across the world is declining, but the pace at which countries are slashing their stockpiles is slowing down. In the mid-1980s, there roughly 70,300 nuclear weapons.
The U.S. was the first country to develop nuclear weapons, which have been the backbone of Washington’s defense for 80 years. American allies across the world—from South Korea to many European NATO members —rely on the threat of American nuclear weapons for their security.
