On Wednesday, CNN's Jake Tapper boiled down President Trump's school of thought on nuclear weapons to three points: "a confusion as to why the U.S. has taken the use of nuclear weapons off the table, a desire for increased proliferation of nuclear weapons, and a clear lack of policy depth about nuclear weapons." Tapper said these "recurring themes" emerged after a review of Trump's statements about nuclear weapons over the last two decades.
The culmination of Trump's nuclear weapons worldview is the president's recent threat against North Korea. Tapper contended that Trump's vow Tuesday to rain down "fire and fury" on North Korea if its nuclear threats continue "fits the pattern" of Trump "speaking more loosely — and, in the view of critics, recklessly — about the most devastating weapon known to man." "To state the obvious, this is a time when words should be chosen and measured carefully," Tapper said, just a day after it was confirmed that North Korea is capable of making nuclear weapons small enough to fit inside missiles.
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