Now We Know Why Tillerson Called Trump a “Moron” - He Wanted to Increase the US Nuclear Arsenal Tenfold
At a meeting between Donald Trump and top-ranking defense and national security officials in July, somebody made the mistake of displaying a chart that showed other presidents had more nuclear weapons than the Narcissist in Chief, prompting the Trump-thing to blurt that he wanted ten times as many nuclear weapons as he already commands.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he wanted what amounted to a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during a gathering this past summer of the nation’s highest-ranking national security leaders, according to three officials who were in the room.
Trump’s comments, the officials said, came in response to a briefing slide he was shown that charted the steady reduction of U.S. nuclear weapons since the late 1960s. Trump indicated he wanted a bigger stockpile, not the bottom position on that downward-sloping curve.
According to the officials present, Trump’s advisers, among them the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, were surprised. Officials briefly explained the legal and practical impediments to a nuclear buildup and how the current military posture is stronger than it was at the height of the buildup. In interviews, they told NBC News that no such expansion is planned.
The moral of this story: never show Trump evidence that someone else has more of something than he does.
And it was after this meeting that several officials heard Rex Tillerson refer to Trump as “a fucking moron.” Now we know the rest of the story.
A nuclear buildup like Trump wanted would violate several arms treaties and risk provoking a worldwide nuclear arms race, but we can’t expect our current president to consider things like this when his gargantuan ego is involved.
Of course, when Trump became dimly aware that he’d been embarrassed again, he lashed out at NBC News.
Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a “tenfold” increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017
Trump: “It’s frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write. And people should look into it.” pic.twitter.com/Op0jaMyNX8
— David Mack (@davidmackau) October 11, 2017