President Trump made several assertions in a tweet about his role in the nation’s nuclear arsenal — many of which were false or misleading.
WASHINGTON — In an early-morning tweet Wednesday, President Trump claimed undue credit for revamping the nation’s nuclear arsenal, wrongly suggested tremendous progress had been made since he took office, and misrepresented the sequence and scope of his executive actions.
“My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before, ” he wrote on Twitter, after exchanging escalating statements with North Korea this week.
Efforts to modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal — including intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, strategic bombers, warheads and infrastructure — began under President Barack Obama, and will span three decades at a cost of about a trillion dollars.
The size and strength of the United States’ nuclear arsenal remains virtually unchanged since Mr. Trump took office. Since January, when the United States had a stockpile of 4,018 warheads, “a small number of warheads are thought to have been retired for an estimated 4,000 remaining in the stockpile, ” according to the Federation of Atomic Scientists. The Arms Control Association, a Washington-based group, has reported no change in its estimate since January.
Many of the modernized weapons will not be available for use until the 2020s or later. A July report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute notes that a new intercontinental ballistic missile is scheduled to replace the Minuteman III in 2028, a next-generation ballistic submarine is expected to supplant the Ohio class in 2031 and the successor to B-52 bombers will become available in the 2030s and 2040s.
There has been no significant change in nuclear modernization plans under Mr. Trump, said Todd Harrison, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “In fairness, there has not been time for such plans to have been prepared, reviewed and implemented, so this is not a surprise, ” he said.
Mr. Trump’s “first order” refers to a Jan. 27 presidential memorandum ordering a new Nuclear Posture Review, characterized by the Pentagon as “legislatively mandated” and the basis of nuclear policy. While the review may recommend changes, as a 2010 review by Mr. Obama did, it has yet to be completed.
Eight other memorandums and four executive orders — including ones terminating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, approving the Keystone XL Pipeline, calling for the construction of a border wall and urging the repeal of the Affordable Care act — preceded it.
Similarly, it is also premature for Mr. Trump to consider his proposed 11 percent increase to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget a fait accompli. Even if Congress passes Mr. Trump’s budget without changes, it does not apply until the beginning of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1.
Kingston Reif, who researches nuclear disarmament at the Arms Control Association, pointed out that the United States has long had powerful nuclear capabilities.
“The U. S. nuclear arsenal was second to none even before the ambitious upgrade project launched by the Obama administration, ” Mr. Reif said.
