Trump & Nuclear Weapons

“THERE’S no reason for us to be building brand-new nuclear weapons, we already have so many you could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over … We’re all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully much more productive.” The quoted statement is a sensible one. Indeed, it broadly aligns with Scottish CND’s longstanding case against nuclear weapons: that the exorbitant expenditure on building weapons that would be illegal ever to use is sheer waste, and that our society could be profoundly regenerated by investing such resources in the public sphere. But the above quote is not a Scottish CND press release. In fact, these are the words of US president Donald Trump, spoken to reporters in the Oval Office only last week. At that same meeting with the press, Trump also mentioned his hopes to meet with the presidents of China and Russia: “And I want to say, ‘let’s cut our military budget in half’. And we can do that. And I think we’ll be able to.”