President Donald Trump said he had talked about denuclearization with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the Kremlin chief is “willing to do it” and suggested China could follow suit.
It’s not the first time the Republican has spoken about wanting to rid the world of nuclear weapons. But it’s a tall order—nuclear weapons have hung over the world for eight decades, the foundation of strategy and alliances linking up countries across the globe.
And for the moment, it’s hard to imagine how the president would convince the nuclear powers to surrender their nukes, and what the White House would need to offer up in return.
What Has Trump Said?
Denuclearization is “a big game,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “But Russia is willing to do it, and I think China is going to be willing to do it.”
“We can’t let nuclear weapons proliferate,” the Republican added. “We have to stop nuclear weapons.”
It’s not clear whether Trump hopes to chase a formal denuclearization agreement with major nuclear powers or strict caps on arsenals, but he has repeatedly expressed antipathy toward nuclear weapons.
This photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on February 19, 2022, shows a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile being launched during military drills.
This photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on February 19, 2022, shows a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile being launched during military drills.
Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File
Yet he also said in 2016, before he took office for his first term, that the U.S. “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” Trump told Reuters in 2017 he would prefer a nuclear weapon-free world, but the U.S. should otherwise be “at the top of the pack.”
The president also pulled the U.S. from a now-defunct treaty with Russia limiting swathes of missile classes with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, including those carrying nuclear warheads in mid-2019. Moscow and Washington had suspended their participation in the agreement months earlier, and have both since deployed weapons that would violate the treaty if it were still in force.
Earlier this year, the Republican said “it would be great if everybody would get rid of their nuclear weapons.”
“I know Russia and us have by far the most,” Trump said. “China will have an equal amount within four-five years. It would be great if we could all denuclearize because the power of nuclear weapons is crazy.”
The U.S. and Russia combined control about 87 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons. A total of seven other countries—China, France, the United Kingdom, Israel, Pakistan, India and North Korea—are believed to have nuclear weapons, or acknowledge that they have nuclear arsenals.
Iran has what it describes as a peaceful nuclear program, although international experts say it has enriched uranium that is close to weapons grade. The U.S. joined Israeli attacks on Tehran’s nuclear sites in June.
The U.S., U.K., Russia, China and France said in January 2022—just before Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor Ukraine—that they were committed to working toward a “world without nuclear weapons.”
But currently, there are more than 12,000 nuclear warheads in existence. Analysts say that overall, the number of nuclear warheads across the world is declining, but the pace at which countries are slashing their stockpiles is slowing down. In the mid-1980s, there roughly 70,300 nuclear weapons.
The U.S. was the first country to develop nuclear weapons, which have been the backbone of Washington’s defense for 80 years. American allies across the world—from South Korea to many European NATO members —rely on the threat of American nuclear weapons for their security.
The U.S., like most nuclear-armed states, is in the process of modernizing its nuclear weapons. Washington said at the start of the year it had completed an overhaul of the B61-12 nuclear bomb and is in the middle of phasing in new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), bombers and submarines. This makes it very hard to see what total denuclearization could look like, and how quickly Trump would hope to achieve it.
Would Russia Give Up Nuclear Weapons?
Skepticism is high. It is “absolute fantasy” to think the Kremlin would surrender its nuclear weapons, said John Foreman, a former British defense attaché to both Moscow and Kyiv.
“Given Russia’s conventional weakness, made worse by the military disaster in Ukraine, plus its fear of an overwhelming aerospace attack, if anything Russia will put greater emphasis on its nuclear arsenal,” he told Newsweek.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has taken a painful toll on Moscow’s ground forces, although the Kremlin has kept other parts of its military, like its strategic forces, away from the conflict.
President Donald Trump, left, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin arrive for a joint press conference at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, on August 15, 2025.
President Donald Trump, left, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin arrive for a joint press conference at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, on August 15, 2025.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
Putin likely believes Trump hopes to be responsible for an arms limitation agreement that goes beyond what former President Barack Obama secured, said William Alberque, who previously headed up NATO’s control, disarmament and weapons of mass destruction non-proliferation center.
Obama inked the New START Treaty with Russia’s then-President Dmitry Medvedev in 2011. It limited Moscow and Washington to 1,550 deployed warheads. It is due to expire in February 2026, and there is currently nothing to replace the agreement when it runs out.
There are currently no restrictions on non-strategic nuclear weapons, sometimes referred to as tactical nuclear weapons, now that the INF Treaty is not in force.
Trump has publicly clashed with Medvedev in recent weeks, the former president now sitting on Russia’s security council. Trump deployed two U.S. Navy nuclear submarines after “highly provocative” statements from Medvedev, who had alluded to Russia’s “dead hand” mechanism, which is designed to launch nuclear weapons even if Russia’s most senior commanders are taken out by an enemy attack. The Kremlin distanced itself from Medvedev’s comments, saying nuclear issues should be treated with “great caution.”
Putin said earlier this month the conversations between the Kremlin and the White House could help reach agreements on arms control. But the Russian president also approved a change to Russia’s nuclear doctrine in November 2024, appearing to bring down the threshold Moscow would need to justify a nuclear strike.
“I’m all for resumed arms control talks on strategic and intermediate range nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia,” Foreman said. “But no country is going to give up its nuclear arsenal for vague promises. Nuclear weapons ensure strategic stability.”
“Putin is using Trump’s interest in a nuclear arms deal to try to leverage Russia’s interests—reintegrating Russia’s economy, bilateral deals, sidelining Ukraine and NATO—and seeing what he can get,” Alberque said.
“Trump will find that Putin is far harder to bargain with than he thinks and he will either have to give up very important core U.S. interests to get an ephemeral deal that ultimately will be of little value, or he’ll end up empty handed once again,” Alberque added.
China’s Nuclear Ambitions?
Beijing is the country with the third-largest nuclear arsenal. U.S.-based nuclear experts said in March Beijing had “significantly expanded its ongoing nuclear modernization program” over the past five years, and now had an estimated 600 nuclear warheads able to be launched from the ground, air or sea.
Pentagon estimates from last year said China was on track to have more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030, although Western analysts say Beijing’s stockpile will depend on how much plutonium, highly enriched uranium and tritium China can access.
“China is not willing to make any deal,” unless Washington sacrifices its support for Taiwan, Alberque said.
Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway part of China, to be eventually united with it under central control, but Taipei, which has a democratic government, has long asserted its independence and aligned itself with Western allies. The U.S. subscribes to the One China policy, but has long said it has a “robust unofficial relationship” with Taiwan’s government.
Even if Washington withdrew support for Taipei, Beijing would likely only agree to a capped nuclear arsenal—and would probably insist international experts are not allowed on site to verify it is complying, Alberque said.
North Korea
U.S. experts said in July 2024 North Korea might have enough resources to build up to 90 nuclear warheads, but probably had roughly 50 warheads.
North Korea doesn’t appear to have any intention of denuclearizing, said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a professor in international relations at King’s College London.
But an agreement that would freeze its nuclear development could be on the table if Washington offered incentives Pyongyang couldn’t resist in areas like trade or aid, Pacheco Pardo told Newsweek.
“Nuclear weapons act as a deterrent that the Kim regime feels it needs to avoid a strike from the U.S. or South Korea,” he told Newsweek. “And they also serve as a symbol of the technological prowess of a country that otherwise is very poor.”
North Korea leans heavily on Russia and China, and has drawn close to Moscow after propping up Russia’s war effort in Ukraine with missiles, ammunition and troops. The closed-off nation is contending with a struggling economy while grappling for recognition by the world as a nuclear state.
In this June 12, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump, right, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sentosa Island in Singapore.
In this June 12, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump, right, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sentosa Island in Singapore.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File
Pyongyang in February called U.S. hopes of denuclearization on the peninsula “absurd,” and several meetings between Trump and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, during the first Trump administration did not bear fruit on limiting North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
South Korea, a key U.S. ally that has watched North Korea’s weapons development with deep anxiety, is not a nuclear weapons state, but falls under the U.S.’ nuclear umbrella.
North Korea has so far seemed unreceptive to both South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae-myung, and Trump’s attempts to engage with Pyongyang. Trump told reporters in the White House on Monday during a meeting with Lee he had a “very good relationship” with the North Korean leader
In a message published as Lee rounded off his visit to Washington earlier this week, North Korean state media said the country’s “status as a nuclear power is an inevitable choice that accurately reflects hostile threats from the outside and changes in the global security forces structure.”