President Donald Trump raised a joint meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, claiming that all countries would move towards denuclearization.
Trump told reporters Thursday that he plans to “set it all straight” in the Middle East and Ukraine to move forward with these denuclearization talks once. This is a comment coming as the US, Russia and Ukraine are actively pursuing negotiations to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“There's no reason to build brand new nuclear weapons. We already have so many,” Trump told the White House on Thursday. “You can destroy the world more than 50 times more, 100 times more. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they are building nuclear weapons.”
“We all spend a lot of money that we can actually spend on other things that are much more productive,” he said.
According to a report from the Congressional Budget Office released in 2023, the United States is projected to spend approximately $756 billion on nuclear weapons between 2023 and 2032.
Putin saw him as a “great competitor,” but he was still seen as an “enemy” as Ukrainian negotiations loomed, Levitt said.
President Donald Trump raised a joint meeting between the left-wing president and Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisting that all countries would move towards denuclearization. (Alexander Zemuria Nikenko via Reuters/Pool)
Additionally, Trump said he aims to schedule an early meeting with XI and Putin for the second term, demanding that the country cut its military budget by half. The president believed that “we can do that,” and remained indifferent as to whether he traveled to XI or Putin or to the White House.
Meanwhile, the United States has dramatically reduced nuclear weapons since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
According to the Department of Energy, the US had maintained 3,748 nuclear warheads as of September 2023, a decrease from 22,217 nuclear warheads in 1989. The agency reported that the United States owned up to 31,255 nuclear warheads in 1966.
In comparison, Russia has an estimated stockpile of around 4,380 nuclear warheads, but China boasts around 600 arsenals, according to the American Federation of Scientists.
Trump announced plans on Thursday to pursue denuclearization talks between Russia and China. (AP/Alex Brandon)
Trump's remarks were built on earlier statements made at the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland in January, showing interest in talks on denuclearization with both Russia and China.
“There's a huge amount of money spent on the nuclear weapons, and the destructive ability is something you don't want to talk about today as you don't want to hear it,” Trump said on Jan. 23.
Previous talks between the US, Russia and China refused to sign an extension of the 2010 new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia in 2020 during Trump's first administration, and countries They were defeated after imposing restrictions on nuclear weapons. The treaty was eventually renewed under the Biden administration and now expired in 2026, but Russia has halted its participation.
On Thursday, Trump denounced these negotiations that they collapsed in 2020 because of what they called “equipped elections.”
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Trump said he aims to schedule a meeting with XI and Putin early in the second term, requiring the country to cut its military budget by half. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Trump said Thursday that Putin wanted peace after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Comments followed successive calls between Russian leaders and Ukrainian President Voldimia Zelensky on Wednesday. Treasury Secretary Scott Becent also traveled to Kiev on Wednesday.
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When Trump met Zelenskyy in New York in September 2024, in his January 22nd post on True Society, he urged Putin to stop the war.
“Solve it now and stop this ridiculous war! It's only getting worse,” Trump wrote. If we don't “trade,” we immediately have the option other than putting high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on those that have been sold to the US and those that have been sold to various other participating countries. There is no. ”
