Trump Wanted Cartoonish ‘Tenfold’ Increase In Nuclear Arsenal, Leading Tillerson To Call Him A Moron

Oh good. Now we know what led Rex Tillerson to call Trump a moron, and it is just as hilarious and simultaneously disconcerting as you probably imagined it would be.

For anyone who somehow missed it, NBC reported last week that Rex Tillerson had become exasperated with Trump over the summer and, apparently at wit’s end, called the President a “f*&%ing moron” within earshot of more than a few people. Those people talked to NBC whose story reportedly threw Trump into a blind rage and prompted the White House to instruct Tillerson to hold an impromptu press conference to “refute” the “rumor.” Of course Tillerson, when asked directly if he called the President a “moron”, said this:

Reporter: Did you call Trump a moron?

Rex Tillerson: Um ?pic.twitter.com/8qPmpAWjcf

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 4, 2017

Right. So he called him a moron. Got it.

Well, fast forward to Tuesday and Trump was out challenging Tillerson to an IQ test, which the President assured Forbes he would win. Realizing how absurd that was, Forbes made it into a banner:

Yes, “in his own words.” Mensa as since offered to sponsor the “event.” “American Mensa would be happy to hold a testing session for President Trump and Secretary Tillerson,” Charles Brown, the group’s communications director, told The Hill.

So that brings us to Wednesday morning and NBC is out telling you what started the whole thing. As it turns out, Tillerson called Trump a “moron” after the President suggested he wanted to see a cartoonish “tenfold” increase in America’s nuclear arsenal.

No, really. Here’s more:

President Trump said he wanted what amounted to a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during a gathering this past summer of the nation’s highest ranking national security leaders, according to three officials who were in the room.

Trump’s comments, the officials said, came in response to a briefing slide he was shown that charted the steady reduction of U.S. nuclear weapons since the late 1960s. Trump indicated he wanted a bigger stockpile, not the bottom position on that downward-sloping curve.

[…]

The July 20 meeting was described as a lengthy and sometimes tense review of worldwide U.S. forces and operations. It was soon after the meeting broke up that officials who remained behind heard Tillerson say that Trump is a “moron.”

Ok, so just let that sink in. Donald Trump was shown a simple line chart of America’s nuclear arsenal and because he didn’t want to be the President who was sitting “at the bottom position on that downward-sloping curve,” he apparently suggested that we ramp it up tenfold.

Again, let that sink in. Donald Trump tried to make a decision to exponentially increase America’s nuclear arsenal (which, by the way, he commands) because he didn’t like the look of a chart. NBC goes on:

The president’s comments during the Pentagon meeting in July came in response to a chart shown during the meeting on the history of the U.S. and Russia’s nuclear capabilities that showed America’s stockpile at its peak in the late 1960s, the officials said. Some officials present said they did not take Trump’s desire for more nuclear weapons to be literally instructing the military to increase the actual numbers. But his comments raised questions about his familiarity with the nuclear posture and other issues, officials said.

Yes, his comments “raised questions about his familiarity with the nuclear posture and other issues” where “other issues” means that if you are suggesting a tenfold increase in the nuclear arsenal based on one slide in a PowerPoint, there’s reason to ask if you are competent enough to understand any “issues.”

And it got worse. This has already been reported, but since NBC mentions it again, it’s worth repeating. The meeting described above came just one day after Trump shocked his national security team by telling the military to fire the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan whose advice he compared “to that of a New York restaurant consultant whose poor judgment cost a business valuable time and money.”

So yeah. Moron. Mentally deranged dotard. And also the President of the United States, in charge of a nuclear weapons arsenal that, if he had his way, would be ten times larger.