Trump Boasts U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Is 'More Powerful Than Ever'
DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC. 9:00 AM ET 08/09/17
President Donald Trump on Wednesday boasted of the strength of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, vowing "there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world."
"My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before," he said on Twitter. "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!"
The president's comments on Twitter came the morning after he bluntly warned North Korea against making any more threats to the U.S., saying the country "will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen."
Within hours of Mr. Trump's remarks on Tuesday, North Korea made its most specific threat against the U.S. yet -- saying through official media that it was considering firing missiles at Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific.
Mr. Trump responded Wednesday morning by retweeting a Fox News story that U.S. Air Force jets had taken off from Guam for training, ensuring "they can 'fight tonight.'"
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson touched down in Guam for a refueling stop on his way back from a trip to Asia and said that Mr. Trump's comments shouldn't worry Americans.
"What the president is doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un would understand, because he doesn't seem to understand diplomatic language," Mr. Tillerson said.
"I think the president just wanted to be clear to the North Korean regime that the U.S. has unquestionable ability to defend itself, will defend itself and its allies," he added.
Asked if Mr. Trump's comments indicated a move toward a military strike on North Korea, Mr. Tillerson said nothing he had seen and nothing he knew of would indicate that the situation had dramatically changed in the past 24 hours. The secretary of state said Pyongyang's increasingly hostile rhetoric came as the U.S. increased pressure with the goal of setting the stage for talks with North Korea.
"I think Americans should sleep well at night, have no concerns about this particular rhetoric of the last few days," Mr. Tillerson said. "I think the president, again, as commander in chief, he felt it necessary to issue a very strong statement directed at North Korea."
On Jan. 27, Mr. Trump signed a presidential memorandum ordering the secretary of defense to undertake an assessment of the U.S. nuclear posture, to ensure the U.S. nuclear arsenal is "modern, robust, flexible, resilient, ready, and appropriately tailored to deter 21st-century threats and reassure our allies."
Mr. Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, had already announced plans in 2010, estimated to cost nearly $1 trillion over 30 years, to modernize and upgrade the country's nuclear arsenal.
Mr. Trump sent the messages from his Bedminster, N.J., resort, along with a handful of tweets on other topics, including media bias, an attack on French soldiers with terrorist overtones, and a Fox News story about Mexican waste threatening U.S. border patrol agents.
He is currently on a 17-day working vacation from Washington while the White House is renovated, with a planned trip to New York City early next week. He has no public events scheduled for Wednesday.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
08-09-170900ET
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