Global denuclearization deal was close – Trump

The US sought a pact with Russia and China that would later be expanded, the former president has said

Washington had almost reached an agreement on nuclear weapons with Moscow and Beijing during his time in the White House, former US president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said.

Trump made the claim during a two-hour interview with comedian Andrew Schulz, posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.

“We were close to a deal for getting rid of nuclear weapons. It would be so good,” Trump said. “I’m talking about Russia, ourselves and China. We would then bring everyone else into it.”

Nuclear weapons are “the biggest threat we have in the world today,” Trump argued. “It’s not global warming, where the oceans are rising 1/8 of an inch in the next 500 years.”

Neither Russia nor China have yet commented on Trump’s claim about a denuclearization treaty in the works during his administration.

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Trump’s remarks came up during a discussion of Iran’s alleged nuclear program, in which he criticized President Joe Biden for being reluctant to confront Tehran. Biden has publicly urged Israel to refrain from striking Iranian nuclear and oil facilities.

The five nuclear-armed members of the UN Security Council had struck a deal with Tehran in 2015, under which Iran would not enrich uranium beyond a certain level, and therefore be unable to build atomic weapons. Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the arrangement in 2018. Though Biden promised to reinstate the deal, his diplomats failed to get any traction on the issue over the past four years.

In 2019, Trump also pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) Treaty, accusing Russia of being in breach of it. That left the New START as the last remaining arms control deal between Russia and the US. Trump initially sought to get China to join the treaty, but Beijing declined, and it looked as if New START might expire at the start of Trump’s second term.

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The Biden White House extended the treaty in February 2021, but it now looks likely it will expire in 2026. Russia suspended its participation in New START in February 2023, citing the illegal and illegitimate US sanctions preventing its reciprocal enforcement, as well as US support for Ukrainian attacks on Russian strategic air bases.

Trump officially lost the 2020 election to Biden, but has questioned the vote’s legitimacy ever since. He won the 2024 Republican nomination and will face the current Vice-President Kamala Harris – nominated by the Democrats after Biden withdrew from the race in July – in the November 5 election.