Brendan Smialowski, AFP/Getty Images
US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base on Oct. 7, 2017 in Maryland.
Trump is traveling to North Carolina. Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says he wants the in “tiptop shape” but has not asked that it be greatly expanded.
Trump was responding to a news report that he had said during a meeting at the Pentagon in July that he wanted what amounted to nearly a ten-fold increase in the number of U.S. nuclear weapons.
President Trump: "It's frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write, and people should look into it."
— NBC News (@NBCNews)
In remarks in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump and said such a big increase was “totally unnecessary.”
He said he does want to modernize the nuclear force.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis issued a two-sentence statement later saying the news report was false and irresponsible.