Nuclear Arms Experts: Donald Trump’s Reckless Tweets Could Spark Launches From Unstable North Korea

The Hill reports:

Nuclear arms experts warn that tweets from President-elect Donald Trump could bait countries with nuclear weapons. The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent spoke with several nuclear experts about the potential impacts of Trump’s tweet published last week, in which he said the U.S. “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability.”

“Imagine we’re in a crisis — if he recklessly Tweets, people could read these things in the worst possible light,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear non-proliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. “The North Koreans have a plan to use nuclear weapons very early in a conflict. They’re not going to wait around. If they think we are going, they’re going to use nuclear weapons against South Korea and Japan.”

Lewis also told the Post that if Trump “says the wrong thing” and “gives the impression that we’re about to act” with nuclear weapons, North Korea could use that as “their signal that they have to go.”