During a gathering this past summer of the nation’s highest-ranking national security leaders, President Donald Trump asked for a dramatic increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, baffling military leaders and prompting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to call him a “f*cking moron,” three officials who were in the room told NBC News.
According to the officials, the president made the request July 20 after he was shown a briefing slide that charted the steady decline in American nukes over the last 50 years, NBC reports.
Some officials who were present said they were shocked by Trump’s request, which amounted to a nearly tenfold increase in nuclear weapons, and said the president’s comments raised questions about his familiarity with U.S. policy and international treaties.
Two officials who were there said the president asked multiple times for more nuclear weapons, more U.S. troops, and additional military equipment.
Trump’s advisers, including the joint chiefs of staff and Tillerson, were surprised by the comments and briefly explained the legal and practical hurdles to a nuclear buildup, according to NBC News.
They informed the president that current U.S. military posture is stronger than it was in the late 1960s, when the American nuclear arsenal was largest.
Trump also complained that his advisors had not yet presented a plan to help U.S. companies obtain mineral rights in Afghanistan, as China had a decade ago.
He compared the Afghanistan policy review to the renovation of Manhattan’s 21 Club, which closed for a year in the 1980s and hired a consultant whose only suggestion was to enlarge the kitchen.
As the meeting broke up, according to NBC News, Tillerson told officials remaining in the room that the president was a “f*cking moron.”
