President-elect Trump: “Let It Be An Arms Race”

In the waning days of December, Donald Trump made it clear he plans to start a new nuclear arms race.

The President-Elect tweeted that he wants to “greatly strengthen and expand” the country’s nuclear arsenal ― hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he plans to “strengthen the strategic nuclear forces.” He went on to clarify that statement, reportedly telling Morning Joe, “Let it be an arms race.”

I don’t know how to rightly convey to you how alarming it is that an offhand tweet from the president-elect could send us into a dangerous arms race with Russia, with hundreds of millions of lives hanging in the balance. Donald Trump has made deeply disturbing remarks about nuclear weapons over the last 12 months, but this takes it a big step further.

This is no time to “wait and see” what Trump will do; we already know his plans. We must choose to act now to protect our communities from these civilization-ending weapons. We must choose to fight harder to end the nuclear threat.

Over the next 4 years, we’ll need to defend the gains we’ve made, and lay groundwork for more in the future. Every American President since and including Ronald Reagan has worked to reduce global nuclear stockpiles. If we can’t force President Trump to continue that long-standing policy, we can defend against its reversal. We need to continue to speak truth to power, and confront threats to the gains we’ve won (the Iran Deal, the Nuclear Security Summit) each time they appear.

It’s time to organize, empower, and mobilize communities around the world to stop Trump’s nuclear arms race. We have done this before, and we can do it again. In the 1980s, faced with a Reagan administration intent on building up the country’s arsenal, the Nuclear Freeze Movement galvanized the support of millions to halt the buildup of nuclear weapons and end the Cold War. Trump threatens decades of critical progress ― but that threat provides a powerful opportunity to galvanize today’s growing grassroots movements. We have the people, and we’re stronger when we fight together.

Here’s how you can get involved:

• Start a local chapter to mobilize and educate your community on the nuclear threat with our online activist resources.

• Reach out to our organizers at field@globalzero.org to learn what you can do to fight in your community.

• Donate. We’ll need all the help we can get to build a movement capable of fight Trump these next four years, and we appreciate your support. Your gift today will be match $1 for $1 by a generous sponsor.

• Stay involved. Make sure you receive our emails, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep updated on how you can get involved.

We are facing a real risk of a new arms race with Russia, and an incoming U.S. President intent on growing the nuclear threat, not ending it. Global Zero’s executive director Derek Johnson states it plainly: “Nothing is more urgent than blocking this disastrous plan for nuclear weapons ― before it’s too late.”

Now is the time to act. Will you help us fight?