‘We Will Outmatch Them At Every Pass, And Outlast Them All,’ He Boasts
President-elect Donald Trump is doubling down on his terrifying tweet from Thursday in which he called for the U.S. to increase its nuclear weapons arsenal.
Trump was asked about the tweet Friday during an off-camera conversation with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzenski of MSNBC’s Morning Joe.Â
“Let it be an arms race, we will outmatch them at every pass. And outlast them all,” Trump reportedly told Brzenski.Â
Trump’s tweet followed a similar statement from President Vladimir Putin, who called for Russia to “strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces.”
But Trump’s statement to Morning Joe appeared to contradict efforts by his transition team to walk back the tweet.
Jason Miller, who will serve as Trump’s White House communications director, said Thursday that Trump was “referring to the threat of nuclear proliferation and the critical need to prevent it — particularly to and among terrorist organizations and unstable and rogue regimes.”
And on Friday, incoming press secretary Sean Spicer told The Today Show‘s Matt Lauer that, “There is not going to be [an arms race] … because he [Trump] going to ensure other countries get the message he is not going to sit back and allow that.”Â
“What’s going to happen is they will all come to their senses and we will all be just fine,” Spicer said.Â