Last Updated on February 21, 2025
President Donald Trump announced his plans to persuade Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to cut defense spending in half and reduce American, Russian and Chinese nuclear stockpiles.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, the president said upon agreement with Russia and China, he would reallocate the remainder of the military budget to lower debt and reenergize the economy
“When I left, we had no Middle East problem. We had no Russia going into Ukraine. They never would have done it — Putin never would have done it. And I came back and — it’s like the whole world is blowing up,” Trump said. “So, when we straighten it all out… one of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, and I want to say, ‘Let’s cut our military budget in half.’ And we can do that, and I think we will be able to do it.”
BREAKING HISTORIC BOMBSHELL: Watch President Trump Announce A Plan To Negotiate A Trilateral Agreement With Russia & China To Cut All Defense Spending By 50% In An Unprecedented Move To Achieve Global Peace
» WATCH/SHARE THE LIVE X STREAM HERE:https://t.co/VURSxDZHxi pic.twitter.com/9pUqY0Fuuy
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) February 15, 2025
Trump said he would meet with China and Russia and make clear, “There’s no reason for us to be spending almost a trillion dollars on military.”
“We’re going to have them spend a lot less money. And I know they’re going to do it,” he continued. “There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons. We already have so many. You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons.”
The United States and Russia account for the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weapons stockpile, jointly possessing approximately 10,805 warheads, according to the Arms Control Association, a US-based nonprofit.
China possesses an estimated 600 warheads, while the United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea have approximately 1,000 between them.
The commander-in-chief warned there was “no reason” to build new nuclear weapons when Washington’s existing arsenal could destroy the world “100 times over.”
Public funds could be spent on “other things that are actually hopefully much more productive,” the president added.
Trump’s plan to slash the defense budget came a day after he spoke with Putin on a call to persuade the Russian head of state to end the war in Ukraine.
Putin agreed to pursue arms reductions “in a very big way,” Trump said. “And here we are, building new nuclear weapons and they’re building nuclear weapons and China is building nuclear weapons and China is trying to catch up because you know, they’re very substantially behind, but within five or six years, they’ll be even.”
It would be “a sad day” if the US ever needed to use its nuclear weapons, Trump continued. “That’s going to be probably oblivion.”
The US spent $895 billion in defense spending for the fiscal year 2025, including proposals for more than $61 billion for airpower, $48 billion for sea power and $13 billion for land power.
The US military budget amounts to 11 percent of the fiscal budget as America outspends by far any other country in defense.
China’s expected military spending is slated to reach $185 billion this year, according to an estimate by the RAND Corporation.
An estimate by the International Institute for Strategic Studies shows that Russian military spending totaled $145.9 billion in 2024.
Meanwhile, congressional Republicans are arguing that U.S. defense spending must dramatically increase, hitting between 4% and 5% of gross domestic product. The GOP-led House and Senate have produced competing budget reconciliation proposals that would increase defense spending by an additional $100 billion to $150 billion over the next 10 years.
