On December 22, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump used his electronic bully pulpit to opine on nuclear weapons policy. “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses,” he tweeted, seemingly unprovoked by any global happening.¹ He likely was reacting to a series of meetings with US Air Force and US Navy uniformed leadership the previous day, though thematically he was restating beliefs he had offered in the 2016 presidential campaign and may have held for several decades.² In the face of media commentary questioning the wisdom of such a strategy, Trump telephoned a popular morning television show to underscore his commitment to such a path even if it generated countervailing moves by US adversaries. If US foes wanted to compete with a US nuclear expansion, he stated “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.”³

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