President Trump said Thursday he was interested in a new arms control pact with China and Russia to reduce “ridiculous” military spending.
“They’re making a lot of weapons, tremendous weapons. And so are we. We just had $716 billion approved for military last year, and now we’re possibly going to do more this year,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Between Russia and China and us, we’re all making hundreds of billions of dollars worth of weapons, including nuclear, which is ridiculous.”
Trump spoke as he hosted Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in the Oval Office, where the men expressed optimism about reaching a bilateral trade deal by next month. Trump said a possible disarmament pact would follow a trade deal, and he asked Liu for his thoughts.
“I think it is a very good idea,” Liu said.
Trump, who has dramatically increased U.S. military spending after it had declined under Barack Obama, told reporters the disarmament idea wasn’t well-formulated, saying he was “speaking out of turn” about his thoughts.
“It doesn’t really make sense that we’re all doing this. I think we’re the leader. I think we’re always goings to be the leader. I think we have to be the leader. I think it’s much better if we all got together and we didn’t make these weapons,” Trump said.
He added: “I think that’s something that could be a phase two after this is done. But as you know, China is spending a lot of money on military, so are we, so is Russia. And those three countries, I think, can come together and stop the spending and spend on things that maybe are more productive towards long-term peace.”
