(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Former President Donald Trump said on a podcast released Wednesday that he nearly reached a deal with China and Russia to denuclearize during his last presidency.
Speaking on the Flagrant podcast with comedian Andrew Schultz, Trump said the greatest threat to the world today is nuclear war—which is why he tried to reach a denuclearization deal with America’s two main rivals.
“The nuclear is the biggest threat we have in the world today. It’s not global warming, where the oceans are rising one-eighth of an inch over the next 500 years. The threat that we have, the biggest threat is nuclear war,” he said.
Trump says he almost reached a deal with Russia and China to completely denuclearize. Interviewer then asks him about his Scottish mother 😭 pic.twitter.com/bFuz46Tydl
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) October 9, 2024
“Because it only takes one. There are five countries that now have capability, and soon there will be more. And I don’t think we should let there be more. And I was at a point—despite the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax … we were close to a deal for getting rid of nuclear weapons. It would be so good,” he said.
“We’re talking about Russia, ourselves and China. And then we’d then bring everyone else into it.”
Trump’s remarks seemed to surprise Schutlz, who asked him whether he meant that the U.S. would get rid of every single nuclear weapon.
“Denuclearize, yes. We were going to get rid of nuclear. Because it’s too powerful. It’s too much,” he said.
Trump then provided insight for why he views nuclear weapons as an existential threat. He said his uncle, MIT physics professor John Trump, would always warn him that someone will eventually be able to attack New York City with a suitcase nuke.
“He used to tell me, Donald, some day—it’s very dangerous—somebody will be able to carry a small briefcase into a building in New York and blow up the entire city,” Trump said.
“I said,’ You’ve got to be kidding me, Uncle John, that will never happen.’”
Schultz and the other interviewers didn’t question Trump further on his purported denuclearization deal, why it fell through, and whether he’ll pursue it again in his next presidency.
Trump’s administration was known for making historic progress on a potential deal with North Korea in 2018. “However, that deal was upended just one year later, after Trump resumed demands for complete denuclearization, driving North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un to abandon the talks,” the Libertarian Institute noted in a 2022 article on the subject.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
