begin quote from:
The last 24 hours of Trump
The last 24 hours of Trump
Story highlights
- Trump has displayed a continued willingness to pressure and contradict President Barack Obama
- Trump's statements on Thursday were astonishing, even by his standards
Washington (CNN)President-elect
Donald Trump long ago earned a reputation for being unpredictable in
his statements, but he outdid himself on Thursday.
In
the span of just a few hours, Trump shook international relations by
undercutting the Obama administration over a UN resolution on Israeli
settlements, indicated he would ramp up nuclear competition with Russia
and then jolted a major defense contractor -- and its shareholders -- by
suggesting he would ask Boeing to replace a fighter jet being made by
Lockheed Martin.
Here's a look at his day:
Israeli settlements
THE TIME: 11:37 a.m. ET
WHAT HAPPENED:
Trump pressures the Obama administration to veto a UN Security Council
resolution condemning settlement activity, an unprecedented move by a
President-elect who has not yet moved into the White House.
"The
resolution being considered at the United Nations Security Council
regarding Israel should be vetoed," Trump tweets, linking to a
statement.
Egypt delayed the potential
vote at the Security Council, putting off a potential standoff between
the US and Israel. An Israeli official later tells CNN his country
reached out to Trump for help in pressuring the Obama administration.
WHAT FOLLOWED:
On sensitive issues of diplomacy and national security, Trump has
displayed a continued willingness to pressure and contradict President
Barack Obama, eschewing a "one president at a time" policy that Obama insists must govern the peaceful transition of power.
Nuclear arms
THE TIME: 11:50 a.m. ET
WHAT HAPPENED: Trump threatens a nuclear arms race.
"The
United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability
until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes,"
Trump tweets.
Hours earlier in Moscow,
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a defense speech in Moscow that
Russia needs to "enhance the combat capability of strategic nuclear
forces, primarily by strengthening missile complexes that will be
guaranteed to penetrate existing and future missile defense systems."
WHAT FOLLOWED: The exchange appeared to raise the prospect of a new arms race
between the US and Russia, which between them boast more than 14,000
nuclear warheads, the still deadly legacy of their four-decades long
Cold War standoff.
Boeing vs. Lockheed Martin
THE TIME: 5:26 p.m. ET
WHAT HAPPENED:
Trump cost millions in market value to Lockheed Martin and caused
thousands of people to now worry they may lose their jobs after tweeting
that the Pentagon's costly new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter could be
replaced with a modified version of a less expensive plane, the F/A-18
Super Hornet.
The F-35 is made by Lockheed Martin, while the Super Hornet is made by aerospace rival Boeing.
"Based
on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I
have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!," Trump
tweets.
WHAT FOLLOWED: Lockheed Martin's stock dipped about 2% in aftermarket trading.
For
Lockheed, the F-35 is its industrial future. Trump's tweet has
threatened to upend Lockheed's plans just as his tweets aimed at China
has rattled Boeing, which is counting on selling jets to Chinese
airlines.
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