Trump wants nuclear arms talks with Russia and China

President Donald Trump said Thursday 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, 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 U.S. 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.

While the U.S. and Russia hold massive stockpiles of weapons since the Cold War, Trump predicted that China would catch up in their capability to exact nuclear devastation “within five or six years.”

He said if the weapons were ever called to use, “that’s going to be probably oblivion.”

Trump said he would look to engage in nuclear talks with the two countries once “we straighten it all out" in the Middle East and Ukraine.

“One of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of 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.”

Trump in his first term tried and failed to bring China into nuclear arms reduction talks when the U.S. and Russia were negotiating an extension of a pact known as New START. Russia suspended its participation in the treaty during the Biden administration, as the U.S. and Russia continued on massive programs to extend the lifespans or replace their Cold War-era nuclear arsenals.

唐纳德·特朗普总统周四表示，他希望重启与俄罗斯和中国的核军控谈判，并最终希望这三个国家能够同意将其庞大的国防预算削减一半。

特朗普在椭圆形办公室对记者说，他感叹数千亿美元被用于重建美国的核威慑力量，并表示希望美国的对手能够承诺削减自己的开支。

特朗普说：“我们没有理由再制造全新的核武器，我们已经拥有这么多了。这些核武器足以毁灭世界50次、100次。而我们现在却在制造新的核武器，他们也在制造核武器。”

“我们都在花很多钱，而这些钱本来可以花在其他更有成效的事情上，”特朗普说。

尽管美国和俄罗斯自冷战以来就拥有大量的武器储备，但特朗普预测，中国将在“五六年内”赶上，具备造成核毁灭的能力。

他说，如果这些武器真的被启用，“那很可能就是灭亡”。

特朗普表示，一旦中东和乌克兰问题“全部解决”，他将考虑与这两个国家进行核谈判。

“我最想举行的会晤之一是与中国国家主席习近平和俄罗斯总统普京的会晤。我想说，‘让我们把军费开支削减一半。’我们能做到这一点。而且我认为我们能够做到。”

特朗普在其第一任期内曾试图让中国加入核武器削减谈判，但未能成功。当时，美国和俄罗斯正在就延长一项名为《新削减战略武器条约》（New START）的协议进行谈判。在拜登政府时期，俄罗斯暂停了参与该条约，而美国和俄罗斯则继续推进大规模计划，以延长或替换其冷战时期的核武库。