“Let it be an arms race … we will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all,” President-elect Donald Trump told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe." | AP Photo Trump threatens to upend U.S. nuclear weapons policy 'We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all,' Trump says. 
 
 In a series of impromptu statements about nuclear weapons, Donald Trump is threatening to upend longstanding U.S. nonproliferation policy, even as his advisers contradict him and muddy his intentions. 
 
 The president-elect had alarmed and perplexed some experts and others in Washington when he pronounced, without offering more details, via Twitter on Thursday that the U.S. “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” 
 
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 He further escalated his call on Friday, telling the MSNBC program “Morning Joe” that he is fine with the country taking part in an “arms race” if it puts the U.S. in a stronger position against foreign adversaries. 
 
 “Let it be an arms race … we will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all,” Trump said in an off-air conversation on Friday. 
 
 After the remark was reported on MSNBC, though, incoming Trump press secretary Sean Spicer pushed back and insisted that the remarks came from a “private conversation” with “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski. While he told the “Today” Show’s Matt Lauer that “there is not going to be” an arms race, he told CNN that Trump is not going to “take anything off the table,” either. 
 
 It remains unclear where the president-elect stands, but given longstanding bipartisan support for preventing nuclear escalation, if followed through Trump’s statements would represent an extraordinary shift in how the U.S. approaches the role of weapons of mass destruction in its own defenses and throughout the world. President Barack Obama has advanced a vision of “America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” 
 
 At first, after his Thursday tweet, Trump’s own supporters had tried to downplay what it meant. It was unclear, for example, whether Trump was advocating the U.S. increasing the size of its nuclear arsenal, which would be a major change, or if he was speaking of modernizing it. Such a suggestion would be in line with ongoing efforts and not necessarily controversial. 
 
 Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former campaign manager who was recently named incoming counselor to the president, told an irate Rachel Maddow on Thursday night that Trump may have meant the latter. Regardless, Conway insisted during the heated exchange on MSNBC, the tweet did not necessarily represent a policy change, but Trump “talking about keeping us safe and secure.” 
 
 “There are a lot of people hiding under the bed right now because it doesn’t seem like he knows what he’s talking about on this issue,” Maddow said. 
 
 “That’s not fair,” Conway responded, later adding, “He’s not making policy on Twitter. … Again, perhaps he is also echoing what President Obama himself has tried to do here, which is get upgrades to our nuclear systems.” 
 
 Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, had also said on Thursday that the president-elect was talking about expanding nonproliferation efforts, not stoking an arms race. 
 
 "President-elect Trump was referring to the threat of nuclear proliferation and the critical need to prevent it — particularly to and among terrorist organizations and unstable and rogue regimes," Miller said in a statement. "He has also emphasized the need to improve and modernize our deterrent capability as a vital way to pursue peace through strength.” 
 
 Trump’s comments Friday, of course, seemed to directly contradict that. 
 
 The controversy started after Russian President Vladimir Putin called on his country to “strengthen” its nuclear forces. “We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defense systems,” he said earlier this week, according to multiple news reports. 
 
 But Putin at an annual news conference on Friday said Russia has no interest in a nuclear arms race and seemed to normalize Trump’s statements, calling his tweet unsurprising. 
 
 “Of course the U.S. has more missiles, submarines and aircraft carriers, but what we say is that we are stronger than any aggressor, and this is the case,” Putin said, adding, “As for Donald Trump, there is nothing new about it, during his elections campaign he said the U.S. needs to bolster its nuclear capabilities and its armed forces in general.” 
 
 During the election season, Trump made contradictory statements about nuclear proliferation. He suggested that some countries — including Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia — should be allowed to develop them, despite efforts to prevent more countries from doing so. But he also told The New York Times in March that “it’s a very scary nuclear world.” 
 
 “Biggest problem, to me, in the world, is nuclear, and proliferation,” Trump said at the time. 
 
 Trump’s more recent comments about expanding America’s nuclear capability go against decades of policy to reduce the stockpile of nuclear warheads and could potentially violate an arms control treaty with Russia. The U.S. has a stockpile of roughly 4,500 nuclear warheads and nearly 1,500 deployed warheads (Russia’s armaments are nearly identical, as both nations account for more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads). 
 
 The U.S. and Russia are due to meet nuclear reduction targets by February 2018 under the New START Treaty, which can be extended for another five years in 2021. 
 
 Experts remain confused and in some cases unnerved by the nature of Trump’s foray into the nuclear weapons discussion. On Thursday, John Tierney, a former Democratic congressman and current executive director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, presented Trump’s tweet as perilous. 
 
 “It is dangerous for the President-elect to use just 140 characters and announce a major change in U.S. nuclear weapons policy, which is nuanced, complex, and affects every single person on this planet,” he said in a statement, warning that an expansion threatens a nuclear arms race. 
 
 “The potential consequences of changing U.S. nuclear weapons policy so drastically are simply unimaginable,” he warned. “Current plans already call for spending $1 trillion over the next three decades to modernize and maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal, which the Pentagon has expressed concern about being able to afford. The President-elect will have to explain why any increase is necessary both financially and strategically.” 
 
 Joseph Cirincione, the president of the global security foundation Ploughshares Fund and a nuclear weapons expert, called Trump's actions “bizarre, unprecedented and completely out of bounds behavior for a president-elect.” 
 
 Incoming presidents usually wait until they take office to make pronouncements on a topic like nuclear policy, Cirincione said. Beyond that, he said he is alarmed by the cavalier attitude Trump seems to have toward as enormously sensitive an issue as weapons of mass destruction. While Trump might see Twitter as a means to convey strength to his constituents at home, Cirincione said, “the rest of the world is watching,” and other countries could respond with actions of their own. 
 
 “You can’t use Twitter to make nuclear policy,” Cirincione said. “Look, you should at least wait until you’re president. But this is why — this kind of view that he’s breaking with convention, he wants to shake things up, I understand that, but not on nuclear policy. There are reasons why people spend days crafting the language of nuclear policy.” 
 
 “These things can be very complicated,” he continued, “and every word matters.” ||||| This is probably not the first day on the job that Sean Spicer imagined it would be. 
 
 Already he has done a merry-go-round of morning show appearances since it was announced Thursday that he will serve as our nation’s next White House Press Secretary, set to take office with the Trump administration next month. However, his first day is off to an, uhh, let’s call it interesting start; during an off-air conversation this morning with Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC, the President-elect surprisingly said of nuclear proliferation, “Let it be an arms race, we will outmatch them at every pass. And outlast them all.” 
 
 Spicer a half hour later told TODAY’s Matt Lauer, “There is not going to be” an arms race, forced to clarify Trump’s comments that the MSNBC morning show reported on earlier in the day. 
 
 Then, remarkably, an hour later on CNN’s New Day, Spicer shrugged off the Brzezinski report altogether; during his interview with Alisyn Camerota, Spicer sheepishly admitted, “That was a private conversation. I was not privy to that.” He promptly shifted the focus of his response, telling the CNN anchor, “He is somebody who gets things done,” discussing the recent conversations over Carrier jobs in Indianapolis. 
 
 What’s unclear is if Trump’s comments to Brzezinski, then, were ever intended to be reported on, or if they were — as Spicer alleged on New Day — just a private comment made over the phone. Although Spicer himself appeared on Morning Joe earlier in the day, during a commercial break he spoke on the phone with Mr. President-elect who was then handed over to Brzezinski. It was then that he reportedly made his comment, “Let it be an arms race,” which the MSNBC anchor promptly reported on as breaking news when the show came back on air. Morning Joe ran “BREAKING NEWS” chyrons about the ‘arms race’ admission throughout the rest of the program. 
 
 We have reached out to MSNBC for comment. Watch Spicer’s comment to CNN above. 
 
 UPDATE 9:22 a.m. EST: A MSNBC spokesperson has confirmed to Mediaite that Trump’s comments to Brzezinski were reportable. 
 
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 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| President-elect Donald Trump, second from left, shows out admirals and generals from the pentagon, foreground after a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew... (Associated Press) 
 
 President-elect Donald Trump, second from left, shows out admirals and generals from the pentagon, foreground after a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has re-opened the debate over nuclear proliferation, calling for the United States to "greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability" until the rest of the world "comes to its senses" regarding nuclear weapons. 
 
 His comments Thursday on Twitter came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said strengthening his country's nuclear capabilities should be a chief military objective in the coming year. The president-elect's statement also followed his meetings a day earlier with top Pentagon officials and defense contractors. 
 
 Trump did not expand on the actions he wants the U.S. to take or say why he raised the issue Thursday. 
 
 Spokesman Jason Miller said the president-elect was referring to the threat of nuclear proliferation "particularly to and among terrorist organizations and unstable and rogue regimes." Miller said Trump sees modernizing the nation's deterrent capability "as a vital way to pursue peace through strength." 
 
 If Trump were to seek an expansion of the nuclear stockpiles, it would mark a sharp shift in U.S. national security policy. President Barack Obama has made nuclear nonproliferation a centerpiece of his agenda, calling in 2009 for the U.S. to lead efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons — a goal he acknowledged would not be accomplished quickly or easily. 
 
 Still, the U.S. has been moving forward on plans to upgrade its aging nuclear arsenal. Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the Pentagon planned to spend $108 billion over the next five years to sustain and improve its nuclear force. 
 
 The U.S. and Russia hold the vast majority of the world's nuclear weapons. In 2010, the two countries signed the New START treaty capping the number of nuclear warheads and missile launchers each country can possess. The agreement is in effect until 2021 and can be extended for another five years. 
 
 The state of the U.S. nuclear arsenal was rarely addressed during the presidential campaign. Trump's vanquished Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, repeatedly cast the Republican as too erratic and unpredictable to have control of the nation's nuclear arsenal. 
 
 The president-elect's transition website says he "recognizes the uniquely catastrophic threats posed by nuclear weapons and cyberattacks," adding that he will modernize the nuclear arsenal "to ensure it continues to be an effective deterrent." 
 
 Trump has spent the week at Mar-a-Lago, his South Florida estate, meeting advisers and interviewing candidates for a handful of Cabinet positions that remain unfilled. On Wednesday, he met with Pentagon officials and the CEOs of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, companies with lucrative government contracts. 
 
 Since winning the election, Trump has complained about the cost of Boeing's work on two new Air Force One planes and Lockheed's contract for F-35 fighter jets. Following the meetings, both CEOs said they had discussed lowering costs of the projects with the president-elect. 
 
 On Thursday, Trump pitted the two companies against each other on Twitter. "Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!" he tweeted. 
 
 Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher said Thursday, "We have committed to working with the president-elect and his administration to provide the best capability, deliverability and affordability." Lockheed declined to comment. 
 
 Trump's tweet came after the close of trading on Wall Street. But in after-hours dealings, shares of Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. fell 2 percent, while Chicago-based Boeing Co.'s stock rose 1 percent. 
 
 Boeing and Lockheed are also among the companies pursuing a contract for replacing Minuteman missiles in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Spokespeople for the two companies declined to comment on whether that contract came up during Trump's meetings with their CEOs. 
 
 The president-elect was also building up his White House staff, announcing Thursday that campaign manager Kellyanne Conway would serve as a counselor. The move will put Conway in close proximity to the president, though she is also expected to remain a visible presence promoting Trump's agenda in the media. 
 
 Trump also announced veteran Republican operatives Sean Spicer as his press secretary and Jason Miller as communications director. Hope Hicks, Trump's long-serving campaign spokeswoman, is also joining the White House in a senior communications position. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Lynn Berry and Joan Lowy in Washington and Jonathan Lemire in Palm Beach, Florida, contributed to this report. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC ||||| (CNN) President-elect Donald Trump signaled Thursday that he will look to "strengthen and expand" the US's nuclear capability hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to enhance his country's nuclear forces. 
 
 The exchange appeared to raise the prospect of a new arms race between the two nuclear superpowers, which between them boast more than 14,000 nuclear warheads, the still deadly legacy of their four-decades long Cold War standoff. 
 
 But the comments by Putin, who is presiding over a project to restore Russia's lost global power and influence, and Trump, who will shortly become the US commander-in-chief, did not spell out exactly what each side is proposing or whether a major change of nuclear doctrine is in the offing. 
 
 Trump weighed in with a tweet just hours after Putin spoke following a meeting with his military advisers to review the activity of the past year. 
 
 "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes," Trump wrote. 
 
 On Friday, Putin downplayed the risk of a new nuclear arms race between Russia and the US and said there was "nothing new" in Trump's tweet. 
 
 "During his election campaign, (Trump) said US needs to bolster nuclear capabilities and armed forces in general and there is nothing new," Putin said at this annual news conference. 
 
 It was not immediately clear if the President-elect is proposing an entire new nuclear policy that he would begin to flesh out once he takes office next year. 
 
 Trump could also be referring to plans to modernize the current US nuclear arsenal that are currently underway and will cost hundreds of billions of dollars. The Obama administration has outlined a plan to modernize delivery systems, command and control systems and to refurbish warheads in the US nuclear triad -- the US force of sea, airborne and missile delivered nuclear weapons. 
 
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 But the plan keeps the size of the nuclear force at existing levels. 
 
 Trump's tweet appeared to envisage an expansion of the size of the US nuclear force, but it was not immediately clear if that is the case. 
 
 Trump communications director Jason Miller sent a statement to try to explain the President-elect's tweet on nuclear capability. 
 
 He suggested Trump was "referring to the threat of nuclear proliferation and the critical need to prevent it," although that was not referenced in the tweet. He also said Trump was emphasizing the need to "modernize our deterrent capability." 
 
 In Moscow earlier Tuesday, Putin said in a defense speech that Russia needs to "enhance the combat capability of strategic nuclear forces, primarily by strengthening missile complexes that will be guaranteed to penetrate existing and future missile defense systems." 
 
 Putin's remarks appeared to suggest that he was talking about new weapons systems that could overcome US missile defenses, a development that could force the US to respond. It was not clear, however, if he was contemplating an expansion in the total numbers of Russian weapons or of the stocks of those arms that are deployed. 
 
 Trump and Putin have suggested Trump's inauguration next month will ring in closer relations after the two sides retreated to their most entrenched positions since the end of the Cold War. 
 
 The ambiguity and timing of Putin's remarks also suggested that he may be laying an opening gambit in his relationship with the new US President-elect. 
 
 The Russian President is seeking to return Russia to the front ranks of global influence, a project that is key to his domestic political survival and often involves actively seeking to undermine US power. 
 
 His power plays in Ukraine and in Syria and military maneuvers close to the borders of former Warsaw Pact states have alarmed Western leaders and stoked tensions in Europe. 
 
 Photos: Cult of Putin Photos: Cult of Putin Putin plays with his Yume, an Akita dog, prior to an interview by Nippon Television Network Corporation on December 7, 2016. Hide Caption 1 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin visits Russia's Przewalski horse reintroduction center in the Orenburg Reserves, near the border with Kazakhstan, on October 3, 2016. Hide Caption 2 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin While his nation waded deeper into the Syrian civil war, Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, spent his 63rd birthday on the ice Wednesday, October 7, playing hockey with NHL stars and various Russian officials and tycoons in Sochi. For years, Russia's leader has cultivated a populist image in the Russian media. Hide Caption 3 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin holds a cat as he inspects housing built for victims of wildfires in the village of Krasnopolye, in a region in southeastern Siberia, Russia, on Friday, September 4. Hide Caption 4 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin, left, and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev jokingly toast at a lunch during a meeting at the Black Sea resort in Sochi, Russia, on Sunday, August 30. Hide Caption 5 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin exercises during his meeting with Medvedev on August 30. Hide Caption 6 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin sits in a bathyscaphe as it plunges into the Black Sea along the coast of Sevastopol, Crimea, on Tuesday, August 18. Putin went underwater to see the wreckage of an ancient merchant ship that was found in the end of May. Hide Caption 7 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin holds a Persian leopard cub in February 2014 at a breeding and rehabilitation center in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Perhaps the most important vote in Russia's public selection of a new Olympic mascot was cast when Putin said he wanted a funky leopard to represent the 2014 Sochi Winter Games. Hide Caption 8 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin holds a pike he caught in the Siberian Tuva region of Russia on July 20, 2013. Hide Caption 9 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin enjoys some fishing during his vacation to the Tuva region on July 20, 2013. Hide Caption 10 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin submerges on board Sea Explorer 5 bathyscaphe near the isle of Gogland in the Gulf of Finland on July 15, 2013. Hide Caption 11 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin plays with his dogs 'Buffy', right, and 'Yume' at his residence Novo-Ogariovo, outside Moscow, on March 24, 2013. Hide Caption 12 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin studies a crane during an experiment called Flight of Hope on September 5, 2012, in which he piloted a hang glider, aiming to lead the birds into flight. It's part of a project to save the rare species of crane. Hide Caption 13 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin takes part in a training session for young ice hockey players before the "Golden Puck" youth tournament final in Moscow on April 15, 2011. Hide Caption 14 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin rides a Harley-Davidson to an international biker convention in southern Ukraine on July 14, 2010. Hide Caption 15 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin The Russian president aims at a whale with an arbalest (crossbow) to take a piece of its skin for analysis at Olga Bay on August 25, 2010. Hide Caption 16 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin A wetsuit-clad Putin embarks on a dive to an underwater archaeological site at Phanagoria on the Taman Peninsula on August 10, 2011. Hide Caption 17 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Famed for his love of martial arts, Putin throws a competitor in a judo session at an athletics school in St. Petersburg on December 18, 2009. Hide Caption 18 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin during his vacation in southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. Hide Caption 19 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin swims the butterfly during his vacation outside the town of Kyzyl in southern Siberia on August 3, 2009. Hide Caption 20 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Assisted by a Russian scientist, Putin fixes a satellite transmitter to a tiger during his visit to the Ussuriysky forest reserve of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Far East on August 31, 2008. Hide Caption 21 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin carries a hunting rifle in the Republic of Tuva on September 3, 2007. Hide Caption 22 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin A shirtless Putin fishing in the headwaters of the Yenisei River in the Republic of Tuva on August 13, 2007. Hide Caption 23 of 24 Photos: Cult of Putin Putin in the cockpit of a Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber jet at a military airport on August 16, 2005, before his supersonic flight. Hide Caption 24 of 24 
 
 And while Russia's economic and conventional military strength pales beside that of the US, its nuclear arsenal remains the root of its power and prestige. 
 
 It is also unlikely to be a coincidence that Putin's remarks came three days before the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union, a collapse he views as a disaster of history. 
 
 Trump, who sees foreign policy through the eyes of an ultimate deal maker, may have felt the need to respond to Putin's remarks. He did so a day after meeting with his incoming military officials at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. CNN's Barbara Starr reported that the talks included discussion of plans to modernize the US nuclear arsenal. 
 
 The President-elect's choice of Twitter to make such an important and sensitive statement was characteristic of his operating style. 
 
 But it underlined how the shorthanded communication of policy by social media is imprecise and open to multiple interpretations that are already posing problems for foreign governments as they seek to divine Trump's true intentions. 
 
 Still, the suggestion that he could preside over a new nuclear arms race will spook critics who argued he showed himself unfamiliar with basic nuclear doctrine during the campaign. 
 
 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had argued that it would be a mistake to hand the US nuclear codes over to a man who could be "baited with a tweet." 
 
 The President-elect also caused consternation in Asia by suggesting that Japan and South Korea who are protected under the US nuclear umbrella might think about developing their own weapons, a move that could unleash a new global nuclear arms race. 
 
 Trump's comment on Twitter also strikes a sharp contrast with the early months of the administration of President Barack Obama, who committed himself to the symbolic goal of a world without nuclear weapons -- an act that helped him win the Nobel Peace Prize. 
 
 Obama also concluded a new Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (START) with Putin's predecessor as Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev. The treaty imposed new limits on the numbers of launchers and warheads each side have deployed. 
 
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 During the campaign, Trump argued that the US needs to modernize its aging nuclear infrastructure. 
 
 "Our nuclear program has fallen way behind, and they've gone wild with their nuclear program. Not good. Our government shouldn't have allowed that to happen," Trump said during his second debate in October against Clinton. "We are old. We're tired. We're exhausted in terms of nuclear. A very bad thing." 
 
 America's nuclear submarines are all more than 30 years old and its most dominant long-range bomber remains the 60-year-old B-52s. The Pentagon has also called for upgrading the US arsenal of ICBMs, or intercontinental ballistic missiles. 
 
 The Pentagon has estimated that it will need to spend as much as $18 billion per year over the next 15 years -- for a total of $270 billion -- to modernize the nuclear triad. 
 
 The United States has 7,100 nuclear warheads while Russia has 7,300, according to the non-partisan Arms Control Association. 
 
 The US has 1,367 warheads deployed on inter-continental ballistic missiles, heavy bombers and on submarines, the State Department said in September. Russia has 1,796 in the same category. 
 
 Russia's inventory of deployed warheads has risen in number owing to fluctuations in Moscow's modernization program and is not seen as a strategic worry by the US military. The United States currently has fewer total weapons, including those in reserve, than Russia because it has dismantled more obsolete devices.
– Donald Trump woke everyone from their pre-Christmas slumber Thursday with a tweet calling for a strengthened and expanded US nuclear arsenal. His tweet followed remarks made earlier by Vladimir Putin in which he called for his country's "need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces," per Yahoo. On Friday, Trump doubled down on his previous remarks during what Politico calls an "off-air conversation" on MSNBC's Morning Joe. "Let it be an arms race … we will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all," he said. (Politico notes some flip-flopping on nuclear issues, citing a March New York Times interview in which he said, "It's a very scary nuclear world. Biggest problem, to me, in the world, is nuclear, and proliferation.") Not in on his latest stance, apparently: his own team. Per a transcript posted by NBC's Katy Tur on Twitter, Trump's new White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told Rachel Maddow Thursday night "we're getting ahead of ourselves" when Maddow mentioned a "new nuclear arms race." And, per a tweet by CNN's David Wright, incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer insisted on Today Friday that "there is not going to be" an arms race and that "we will all be just fine." A short time later on CNN's New Day, Spicer said the remarks Trump made to Morning Joes' Mika Brzezinski "was a private conversation. I was not privy to that," per Mediaite. Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star wonders: "Is there any point of quoting clarifications from Trump spokespeople? They've proven to be unreliable interpreters of him." One person shrugging off arms race chatter: Putin, who said Friday Trump's tweet was "nothing new," per Politico.