Trump boasts about America's nuclear arsenal, gets fact-checked

President Trump vowed to overhaul the American nuclear arsenal.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 9 August 2017

Six days after President Trump's inauguration, the Doomsday Clock ticked 30 seconds closer to midnight. The metaphorical clock has been used to gauge the threat of humanity's annihilation since 1947, with midnight representing the end of the world; the apocalypse is now just two and a half minutes from midnight, reported the scientists, who consult with a board that includes 15 Nobel Laureates.

The clock advanced in large part because President Trump had vowed to overhaul America's nuclear arsenal. On Wednesday, after escalating his threat against North Korea, Trump boasted about his promise:

While Trump had indeed made promises, he's done little to see them through. His first order was technically on the Affordable Care Act, and it was actually President Obama who started the modernization process in the first place, MSNBC's Kyle Griffin pointed out on Twitter. Stephen Schwartz, the editor of Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940, added, "This is patently absurd. Literally nothing has happened in the last 201 days to increase the overall power of the U.S. nuclear arsenal."

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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.