Fall Quarterly 2017
By John LaForge
On December 22, 2016, “Donalt Rump” said, “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability…” This absurdity was laughed off by almost everyone except the weapons profiteers who are still panting at the thought. But that lie was then. On August 9, a mere 7½ months later, Mr. Trump wrote in a tweet, “My first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before.”
Both of these presidential falsehoods were debunked the very same day, the first one by the White House’s own website, which says Trump’s first order as President was directed at “minimizing the economic burden” of patients under the Affordable Care Act. And about the second, as Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, told the Washington Post Aug. 9: “The nuclear arsenal is the same as it was the day before Inauguration Day. It consists of about 1,750 strategic nuclear warheads deployed on intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and strategic bombers—and about 180 tactical nuclear weapons on European bases.”
“Nothing’s happened yet,” said Todd Harrison, director of Defense Budget Analysis at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington. Also speaking to the Post on Aug. 9, Harrison said, “Nothing has really changed in the nuclear arsenal that is available.” Likewise, Alexandra Bell, a former State Department adviser for nuclear policy wrote in an Aug. 9 tweet, “There is no demonstrable difference between our nuclear arsenal now and our nuclear arsenal on Jan 19.”
In related presidential falsehoods, Sec. of Defense James “mad dog” Mattis openly contradicted the president Aug. 30, saying, “The US is never out of diplomatic options in dealing with North Korea,” only minutes after Trump tweeted, “The US has been talking to North Korea and paying them extortion money for 25 years. Talking is not the answer.”
I.F. Stone famously said, “All governments lie. Nothing they say should be believed.” A modern iteration could be, “All government tweets are lies. Nothing in them should be believed.”
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