Originally Posted by mellincf

On July 20, Donald Trump attended a meeting at the Pentagon with members of his national security team and Cabinet officials. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was on hand, and after the president left the room, the nation’s chief diplomat reportedly called Trump a “moron” – or more specifically, a “f***ing moron.”



The president saw a slide that showed the size of the U.S. nuclear stockpile over the past seven decades. Trump saw the highest point on the chart – a half-century ago, the American stockpile was at 32,000 – and “told his team he wanted the U.S. to have that many now.”



Trump's pattern of reckless incompetence on this issue is unnervingly long. In one of the GOP primary debates, for example, Trump seemed baffled by a simple question about the nuclear triad. In one of the general election debates, Trump was asked about nuclear first-use policy, and delivered two completely contradictory answers over the course of a few seconds.



This is the same Republican who, over the course of his campaign, suggested more countries – specifically South Korea, Japan, and Saudi Arabia – should develop nuclear-weapons programs for their own national security interests.



Around the same time, Trump seemed genuinely confused by the meaning of the word “proliferation.”