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Senator Says Trump Has 'Maturity Of A 5-Year-Old' -- Which Makes Nuke Talk Very Scary
Senator Says Trump Has 'Maturity Of A 5-Year-Old' -- Which Makes Nuke Talk Very Scary
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said Thursday that he has little confidence Donald Trump will act …
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Senator Says Trump Has ‘Maturity Of A 5-Year-Old’ — Which Makes Nuke Talk Very Scary
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) says the apparent escalation of tensions after the president-elect’s nuclear tweet terrifies him.
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Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said Thursday that he has little confidence Donald Trump will
act rationally on nuclear weapons as commander in chief, in part
because he thinks the president-elect behaves like a child.
Responding to Trump’s vague tweet
Thursday morning stating that he wants to “strengthen and expand” the
nuclear capability of the United States, Merkley told MSNBC’s Chris
Hayes that the apparent escalation of tensions terrified him.
“We have an incoming
president who has kind of the maturity of a five-year-old, wrapped by a
massive ego,” Merkley said. “And to have that just a second away from a
nuclear trigger is very, very scary.”
Trump’s tweet came just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a similar call to strengthen his nation’s nuclear arsenal. Experts have expressed concerns
that this sort of rhetoric could signal a departure from decades of
cooperation against nuclear proliferation in the international
community.
“This is an area where it’s
constrained by international agreements, as it should be because of the
risk of nuclear weapons,” Merkley said.
Although Trump’s tweet left many people worried, it also sparked uncertainty within his own camp, as his surrogates have repeatedly sought to walk back or clarify the president-elect’s position on nukes.
On Thursday, Trump’s aides
claimed their boss wasn’t actually arguing for building more nuclear
weapons ― to which the president-elect reportedly responded Friday that
he was fine with doing just that.
“Let it be an arms race,” he allegedly told MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski. “We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.”
Trump’s incoming press
secretary Sean Spicer later tried to temper those remarks, stating
flatly that “there is not going to be” an arms race.
This confusion isn’t likely
to reassure people like Merkley, who believes nuclear policy should be
approached with a level head and an understanding of the extreme stakes
at play.
“There is really so much at risk here of irrational action,” the senator told Chris Hayes on Thursday.
You can watch the full interview above. Merkley’s comments on nukes and Trump’s maturity begin around 7:20.
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