President Trump was apparently unaware of the biggest U.S.-Russia deal since the Cold War

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

published 9 February 2017

President Donald Trump bragged about his popularity and dismissed the New START nuclear reduction treaty as a bad deal for the U.S. during his phone call last weekend with Russian President Vladimir Putin, three U.S. officials familiar with the conversation told Reuters:

When Putin raised the possibility of extending the 2010 treaty, known as New START, Trump paused to ask his aides in an aside what the treaty was, these sources said.Trump then told Putin the treaty was one of several bad deals negotiated by the Obama administration, saying that New START favored Russia. Trump also talked about his own popularity, the sources said.The White House declined to comment. It referred Reuters to the official White House account issued after the Jan. 28 call, which did not mention the discussion about New START. [Reuters]

During the 2016 campaign, Trump also criticized the treaty, although his misidentified it as "START-Up" and falsely alleged that it allowed Russia to continue to make warheads while the United States could not.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.