The President of the United States yesterday wrote on social media: “The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country. This was accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons, during my First Term in office.”
Trump added: “Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years.” He claimed: “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis.”
Simply remarkable. Not lying. Transactional and willful ignorance. https://t.co/X7xyoazpNj
— Barry R McCaffrey (@mccaffreyr3) October 30, 2025
Conservative national security and nuclear weapons expert Tom Nichols, a former U.S. Naval War College professor, responded to the POTUS post: “Nothing in here is correct. Russia’s stockpile is larger than ours, by a small margin. Trump did not create a larger stockpile by ‘updating’ in his first term. No nation except North Korea has tested nuclear weapons since the 1990s.”
Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey concurred with Nichols’ assessment and replied of Trump’s claims: “Simply remarkable. Not lying. Transactional and willful ignorance.”
[Note: During the first Trump administration, in 2018, McCaffrey claimed Trump was “for some unknown reason under the sway” of Russian President Vladimir Putin and was “a serious threat to U.S. national security.”]
Nichols also criticized Trump’s claim about South Korea “building its Nuclear Powered Submarine in the Philadelphia Shipyards, right here in the good ol’ U.S.A. Shipbuilding in our Country will soon be making a BIG COMEBACK.”
Nichols replied: “As the guy whose job it was to help save the Philadelphia Navy Yard when I worked for John Heinz 35 years ago, I can assure you that there are no naval shipyards in Philadelphia.”
The original Philadelphia Shipyard, named after the late U.S. Senator John Heinz (D-PA), closed in 1991, but a portion of it is used today and called Hanwha Philly Shipyard. The commercial enterprise is named after the South Korean conglomerate Hanwha, which purchased the yard in 2024 for $100 million.