Tapper to Trump: Now might not be the time to improvise

president tweeted what was presumably intended as another warning to North
Korea writing quote my first order as president was to renovate and modernize
our nuclear arsenal it is now far stronger and more powerful than ever
before hopefully we will never have to use this power but there will never be a
time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world exclamation point
the presidential memorandum to which he was referring actually the 9th not the
first one issued directed the Pentagon to launch a review of US Nuclear Posture
and strategy it is unclear how much modernizing has happened since that
order was issued to make the arsenal quote stronger and more powerful than
ever before it has after all only been six months since mr. Trump's order and
the Pentagon has said that the review did not actually start until April but
it is a move that would require billions to be allocated by Congress and it would
be subject subject to treaties with other nuclear powers what is clear is
that the tweet from earlier today as well as yesterday's threat of fire and
fury directed at North Korea fits the pattern of President Trump speaking more
loosely and in the view of critics recklessly about the most devastating
weapon known to man more so than any leader of any Western nation we have
analyzed two decades worth of comments about nukes by President Trump and we
found three recurring themes the post significant breaks from the consensus of
Western leaders on this issue first is the president expressing confusion as to
why the u.s. possesses nuclear weapons if it is not willing to use them there
doesn't appear to be any concept in these statements of the lethality of the
weapon nor the moral strategic and environmental risks using these weapons
might pose nuclear should be off the table but would there be a time when it
could be as poss okay the trouble is when you said that the whole world heard
David Cameron in Britain heard the Japanese when we bombed them in 45 bird
they're hearing a guy running for president states Tokyo may be using
nuclear weapons nobody wants to hear that well America and why are we making
them why do we make them this FDLE's with the second theme the president's
position in favor in favor of nuclear proliferation this is a staggering break
from the widespread view that the US should do all that it can to dissuade
other countries from pursuing these deadly weapons as he told Blitzer last
year the president is more than willing for other countries to develop their own
nuclear arsenals let's ship an and South Korea become
nuclear powers I am prepared to if they're not going to take care of us
properly we cannot afford to be the military and the police for the world we
are right now the police for the entire world we are policing the entire world a
third theme that we have seen throughout two decades worth of statements is a
clear lack of policy depth on this issue one in inverse proportion to the force
with which mr. Trump expresses his views on nuclear weapons as was seen perhaps
most notably at a CNN debate in 2015 when conservative talk radio host Hugh
Hewitt asked mr. Trump about the nuclear triad that is the u.s. strategy of
having nukes on land in the air and at sea
the three legs of the triad that you have a priority they want to go to
Senator wrong I think they look nucleus just the power the devastation is very
important to me so that is a confusion as to why the US has taken the use of
nuclear weapons off the table a desire for increased perlu proliferation of
nuclear weapons and a clear lack of policy depth about nuclear weapons that
brings us to the current standoff North Korea best not make any more threats to
the United States they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never
seen speaking of fire and fury the world had
never seen we should note it was on this day in 1945 that US forces dropped the
atomic bomb on Nagasaki Japan immediately incinerating 40,000 people
three days before that the US I dropped a bomb on Hiroshima killing 70,000
people instantly the actions brought the end of World War two to save the obvious
this is a time when words should be chosen and measured carefully White
House sources tell us that the president spoke extemporaneously when he made that
statement about fire and fury perhaps now might not be the best time to
improvise

Tapper to Trump: Now might not be the time to improvise

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