Trump & Possible Cuts to Defence Budgets

Donald Trump said that he wants to restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China and that eventually he hopes all three countries could agree to cut their massive defense budgets in half. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump lamented the hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in rebuilding the nation’s nuclear deterrent and said he hopes to gain commitments from the US adversaries to cut their own spending. “There’s no reason for us to be building brand-new nuclear weapons. We already have so many,” Trump said. “You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons.” “We’re all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully, much more productive,” Trump said.

Guardian 13th Feb 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/13/trump-nuclear-russia-china

Reuters 13th Feb 2025
https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-says-he-wants-work-with-russia-china-limiting-nuclear-weapons-2025-02-13/

Daily Mail 13th Feb 2025
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-14395359/Trump-wants-denuclearization-talks-Russia-China-hopes-defense-spending-cuts.html

ITV 14th Feb 2025
https://www.itv.com/watch/news/the-latest-headlines-as-trump-says-he-hopes-for-nuclear-arms-control-talks/5wr9dh3