Trump’s Move to Resume Nuke Testing ‘Is Weakness Masquerading in Strength,’ Newsom Tells Meet the Press

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) went off on President Donald Trump’s nuclear testing announcement in an upcoming interview with Meet the Press.

During an interview with Kristen Welker for NBC News’ Meet the Press ,Newsom was asked about Trump announcing the United States would resume nuclear testing for the first time in more than 30 years.

“Do you think President Trump would actually use a nuclear weapon?” Welker asked Newsom.

Newsom called Trump “historically weak” and said the move is simply him “masquerading in strength.”

The governor argued:

He doesn’t even know – he said the Pentagon should do it. Wake up, Mr. President. I know he may have jet lag. It’s the Department of Energy. He doesn’t even know which agency is responsible for that. He may want to learn about computational capacity at the Department of Energy to test this technology. And may want to look back at the record books, to your point, 1992 since the last time we did – look, this is weakness masquerading in strength. This is classic Trump and Trumpism. This guy is historically weak and these are acts of a weak person that is trying to appear strong. He has – it has the form and substance of fog.

Newsom added that he was “embarrassed” recently watching Trump with China President Xi Jinping. Trump left a meeting with China’s leader this week and rated it a “12” out of 10. The meeting came amidst trade war tensions and ended with China pausing its new restrictions on rare earth minerals while Trump will cut down on tariffs against the country.

“I was embarrassed. I was humiliated watching the President of the United States in front of Xi. ‘We’re good.’ And I mean, he was negotiating away this country in the first five minutes of the photo op. He came back with nothing. He got played by President Xi,” Newsom said.

Welker returned back to topic of nuclear weapons and whether Trump would ever use one.

“Just to go back to my question though, do you think he would actually use a nuclear weapon, Governor?” she asked.

Newsom chalked up Trump’s nuclear talk to him being “performative.”

“No, you know, it’s interesting. I’ve had one or two private conversations with him where he actually calmed me a little bit talking about nuclear weapons,” the governor said. “So I don’t believe that – it’s rabble – it’s again, he’s trying to masquerade as a patriot, trying to masquerade, he’s trying to overcompensate, to be a tough guy. The only guy who’s been doing this is Kim Jong Un.”

Trump announced the nuclear testing due to countries like Russia and China.

“Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.”

Watch above via NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.

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