Trump escalates attacks against the Smithsonian Institution
"I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made," Trump said on Truth Social.
The Smithsonian, which was established in 1846 and includes 21 museums and galleries and the National Zoo, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Most of its museums are in Washington.
When asked if Trump would threaten funding cuts to the Smithsonian based on the findings, a White House official said, "President Trump will explore all options and avenues to get the Woke out of the Smithsonian and hold them accountable."
The White House said last week it will lead an internal review of some Smithsonian museums after Trump earlier this year accused it of spreading "anti-American ideology" and raised alarm among civil rights advocates.
"The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been -- Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future," Trump said.
The Smithsonian receives most of its budget from U.S. Congress but is independent of the government in decision-making. Civil rights advocates say Trump's administration is undoing decades of social progress and undermining the acknowledgment of critical phases of American history.
Trump has made threats to cut federal funding of top U.S. educational institutions, citing pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel's war in Gaza, transgender policies, climate initiatives and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Last month, the government settled its probes with Columbia University, which agreed to pay $221 million, and Brown University, which said it will pay $50 million. Both institutions accepted certain government demands. Talks to settle with Harvard University are ongoing.
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Japan Times
20 minutes ago
- Japan Times
More Republican governors send National Guard to Washington, backing Trump
Hundreds of additional National Guard troops are headed to Washington, D.C., from half a dozen Republican-led states, bolstering U.S. President Donald Trump's extraordinary move to flood the Democratic-led city with soldiers and federal agents in what he claims is an effort to fight violent crime. The Republican governors of Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee agreed to deploy troops to Washington, days after the Republican governors of West Virginia, South Carolina, and Ohio also did so at the Trump administration's request. Trump has characterized Washington as overrun with violence and homelessness, a description local officials have rejected. Federal and city statistics show violent crime rates have dropped sharply since a spike in 2023, though the city's murder rate remains higher than most other big U.S. cities. The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether the city manipulated its statistics to make crime rates appear lower, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed sources. In a social media post on Monday, Trump wrote, "D.C. gave Fake Crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety," without providing evidence. He made similar assertions last week. Trump announced on Aug. 11 he had ordered 800 Guard troops to the city and temporarily taken over its police department, a remarkable exercise of presidential power over the U.S. capital. A man rides by on an e-scooter as members of the National Guard stand watch outside of Union Station under orders from the Trump administration on Tuesday. | AFP-JIJI The federal government also dispatched agents from numerous agencies, including the FBI, to patrol the city's streets. Following a legal challenge filed by the city's attorney general, the administration negotiated a deal with Mayor Muriel Bowser to keep Police Chief Pamela Smith in charge of the department's operations. Trump has threatened similar operations in other Democratic-controlled cities such as Chicago, though he would likely face more legal obstacles than he does in Washington, where the federal government still has broad oversight under U.S. law. Critics have accused Trump of manufacturing an emergency to seize greater control of Washington and target Democratic cities. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said he had approved the deployment of about 135 Guard soldiers to Washington, while Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he had ordered 200 soldiers to the capital. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has also deployed 160 Guard troops to the city, according to local media reports. "Crime is out of control there, and it's clear something must be done to combat it," Reeves said in a statement. Members of the National Guard at the Metro Center station in Washington, on Tuesday. Trump has threatened to deploy the Guard in other Democratic-controlled cities. | TIERNEY L. CROSS / THE NEW YORK TIMES In total, the six Republican states have announced deployments of more than 1,100 Guard troops to Washington. "The numbers on the ground in the District don't support a thousand people from other states coming to Washington," the mayor told reporters on Monday, adding that the question was "why the military would be deployed in an American city to police Americans." Guard soldiers, most of whom have civilian jobs and serve part-time, often respond to natural disasters and other emergencies. While the National Guard in Washington reports to the president, governors typically control the Guard in their own states. Trump tested that authority in June, when he ordered thousands of National Guard troops and active-duty Marines into Los Angeles as protests over his administration's immigration raids flared up. The deployment came despite opposition from California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. A federal judge in San Francisco is weighing whether Trump's actions in Los Angeles were illegal, after California sued the administration. Federal law generally forbids the use of the military in law enforcement, but there are exceptions, including for National Guard troops that are under state command, such as California's. A person blows bubbles near members of the National Guard standing watch outside Union Station in Washington on Aug. 14. | KENT NISHIMURA / THE NEW YORK TIMES In 2020, during Trump's first administration, the White House requested Guard troops from numerous states to help restore order in Washington in the wake of racial justice protests. Then-Attorney General Bill Barr said the National Guard remained under state command and was used to protect federal buildings and personnel. Even so, Barr said their duties would include controlling crowds, temporarily detaining people, and conducting "cursory" searches, activities usually associated with police. Critics said the 2020 experience in Washington potentially opened the way for the president to use armed troops against civilians. A White House official said on Tuesday that Guard troops in Washington may carry arms but were not making arrests. Instead, the soldiers are protecting federal property and providing "a safe environment for law enforcement officers to make arrests." Some 465 arrests have been made in the 12 days since the Trump administration's operations began, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on social media platform X on Tuesday, an average of 39 arrests a day. The city's Metropolitan Police Department arrested an average of 61 adults and juveniles per day in 2024, according to city statistics. Dozens of homeless encampments have also been cleared from federal land, according to the White House.
Nikkei Asia
30 minutes ago
- Nikkei Asia
US designates anti-China militants in Pakistan as terrorist group
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Japan Times
an hour ago
- Japan Times
Trump shock spurs Japan to think about the unthinkable: nuclear arms
It was at an 18th century Georgian manor house outside London that Japanese lawmaker Rui Matsukawa began to have serious doubts about America's commitment to defending her country. Matsukawa, a former deputy defense minister, traveled in March to historic Fordham Abbey for a top-level bilateral conference. At the estate, now home to a Japanese-owned sake brewery, she said she learned from British lawmakers, diplomats and business leaders that a tectonic shift in their thinking was underway. U.S. President Donald Trump was openly berating America's European allies and tilting toward Russia. And Europe had "awakened,' she said, to the fact it could no longer rely so heavily on America and must take more responsibility for its security. This was also true for Japan, currently the home to the largest overseas contingent of U.S. troops globally, she realized. "You can't really take the U.S. presence for granted,' said Matsukawa, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's influential national security policy council. Matsukawa is part of a contingent of senior Japanese lawmakers who are beginning to think the unthinkable in the only nation to have suffered an atomic bomb attack: Surrounded by nuclear-armed neighbous China, North Korea and Russia, Japan too might have to deploy those weapons of mass destruction. "Trump is so unpredictable, which is his strength maybe, but I think we have to always think about Plan B,' Matsukawa said in an interview at her Tokyo office. "Plan B is maybe go independent, and then go nukes,' she added, raising the possibility of Japan reducing its reliance on American security guarantees. The Trump shock is also reverberating in neighboring South Korea, currently protected under the U.S. nuclear umbrella like Japan. Up to 75% of the South Korean public is in favor of the country building its own nuclear weapons, polling shows. The election of left-center President Lee Jae Myung in June has dampened some of the more overt talk of nuclear weapons in Seoul. But even some in his Democratic Party are increasingly recognizing the need, should U.S. security commitments falter, to achieve "nuclear latency' — possessing the means to quickly build a usable atomic arsenal. Support in Japan for developing its own indigenous atomic weapons is smaller. Matsukawa, for instance, stresses that the U.S. remains an important ally and says Tokyo needs to persuade the Trump administration that it is in America's interest to defend her country and deter a crisis over Taiwan. Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Rui Matsukawa speaks during an interview at her office in Tokyo on May 26. Matsukawa believes Japan needs to prepare for the possibility of nuclear sharing, which would allow a non-nuclear state such as her country to participate in the planning, training and use of nuclear weapons. | REUTERS But interviews with a dozen Japanese lawmakers, government officials and former senior military figures reveal there is a growing willingness to loosen Japan's decades-old pledge, formulated in 1967, not to produce, possess or host nuclear weapons in its territory — what is known as the "Three Non-Nuclear Principles.' Among the Japanese public, too, opinion surveys show a greater readiness to rethink the nuclear stance. Hiroshima native Tatsuaki Takahashi, whose grandfather survived the atomic bomb attack on the city, said that views on the issue are changing as the tragedy of the past becomes more distant. The shifting attitudes in Japan and South Korea, both key pillars of America's decades of dominance in the Pacific, have been spurred by a growing loss of faith among U.S. allies in Washington's commitment to their security, in particular doubts about whether America will come to their aid in a conflict. Trump's election on an America-First platform and his spurning of America's traditional allies has turbo-charged these concerns, interviews with lawmakers and officials in Japan and South Korea show. The president's sowing of doubt about continued U.S. support for NATO, imposition of tariffs on Japan, South Korea and Australia, and talk of absorbing Canada into the U.S., have spooked many of America's long-time allies. The White House did not respond to a request for comment, but a senior Trump administration official said that there are "no changes in U.S. policy' toward Japan and South Korea. Trump and his senior national security aides have repeatedly stressed their commitment to allies in Asia. Japan's foreign ministry said the government considers the Trump administration's commitment to the bilateral alliance "to be unwavering.' The defense ministry said Japan has "full trust in the U.S. fulfilling its obligations using all types of capabilities, including nuclear forces.' South Korea's foreign ministry said its decades-old alliance with the U.S. remains "the foundation of our diplomacy and has played a key role in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.' China's defense ministry said it opposed "any attempt to hype up the so-called 'Chinese nuclear threat' in an effort to smear and defame China and deliberately mislead the international community.' China, the ministry added, continues to adhere to a no-first-use policy — "not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones.' Rethinking the nuclear umbrella For Tokyo, which in recent years has taken historic steps away from its post-war pacifism to rebuild its military capabilities, the nuclear question is the final security taboo. Eighty years ago this month, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated by atomic bombs at the end of World War II. Japan renounced war and vowed never to possess the military means to attack other countries. It also became a vocal proponent of nuclear disarmament. U.S. President Donald Trump salutes troops aboard the USS Wasp amphibious assault ship in Yokosuka, Japan in 2019. Trump's sowing of doubt about Washington's commitment to NATO and the imposition of U.S. tariffs on traditional American allies have spooked some in Japan and South Korea who now wonder about the reliability of U.S. security guarantees. | REUTERS Former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, who formulated the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974 for this policy achievement and for signing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Last year, Nihon Hidankyo, an organization established by survivors of the atomic bomb attacks, also won the prize. Until now, Japan has relied on U.S. nuclear weapons, which once laid waste to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, to deter modern-day threats. In a security arrangement called "extended deterrence,' Washington has committed to use the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend Japan and other allies. In recent years, however, Tokyo has begun to adopt a more robust stance in its biannual closed-door talks on this arrangement with the U.S., it has been learned. Tokyo has been delving into subjects such as how its conventional military could practically support U.S. nuclear forces in a conflict, two former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the talks said. This has included discussions on how Japan's ongoing efforts to acquire new, longer range "counter-strike' missiles could allow it to take out enemy launch platforms to deter or assist in a nuclear conflict, said the two officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks. The two sides have also explored how Japan's surveillance and intelligence apparatus could support the U.S. nuclear mission and chalked out a roadmap for how the two governments and militaries would coordinate in a nuclear emergency, the former officials added. These details have not been previously reported. Japan's foreign ministry declined to comment on the details of the talks. The defense ministry said Japan and the U.S. "have been working to strengthen extended deterrence,' but declined to comment further. The U.S. State Department said America's "extended deterrence commitments' to Japan and South Korea "are ironclad.' Now, lawmakers from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party are considering how they can reinforce the credibility of the nuclear umbrella, according to interviews with Matsukawa and four other senior party members. They suggested that the non-nuclear principles could be revised or reinterpreted to allow U.S. nuclear weapons to enter Japanese territory, noting that the principles are not set down in legislation or legally binding. Matsukawa said a widely publicized visit of a U.S. submarine designed to carry nuclear weapons to South Korea in July 2023 provided an example Japan could follow to bolster deterrence. Matsukawa and three former senior military commanders said Tokyo should also prepare for the possibility of nuclear sharing, a concept that allows non-nuclear states to participate with its nuclear-armed allies in planning, training and use of nuclear weapons. Former head of Japan's Self-Defense Forces, Ryoichi Oriki, seen here in his Tokyo office on May 26, says Trump's "volatility on trade" has raised doubts about U.S. defense commitments. | REUTERS Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, for instance, have been hosting U.S. nuclear weapons on their soil as part of NATO's nuclear-sharing strategy. In the event of a nuclear war, these non-nuclear states could deliver those weapons to targets on behalf of the U.S., using their own aircraft. Before taking office, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba advocated for an Asian version of NATO that could include nuclear sharing. Japan "has no intention' of revising its non-nuclear principles, the LDP said in response to questions. But Ishiba has instructed the party "to examine Japan's future security arrangements in Asia,' it said. The foreign ministry said the government "does not consider nuclear sharing to be permissible.' Japan, it said, "will not possess nuclear weapons.' Ishiba's office said the foreign ministry's responses represented its views. Confidence shaken Doubts about the reliability of American security guarantees didn't start with Trump. When the administration of then-U.S. President Barack Obama didn't respond to Chinese island-building and reclamation in disputed territories of the South China Sea, starting in 2013, it raised questions about Washington's stomach for confrontation with Beijing, said Taro Kono, a ruling party lawmaker who previously served as foreign and defense minister. After Russia invaded Ukraine, then-U.S. President Joe Biden sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Kyiv. But Biden also said the U.S. wouldn't fight World War III over Ukraine. The Biden administration's Ukraine policy rattled political and military strategists in Tokyo and Seoul. Russia has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons to limit outside intervention in the war. The apparent success of that nuclear intimidation has fueled anxiety over the readiness of the U.S. to protect its allies, said Tomohisa Takei, a retired admiral who helmed Japan's navy from 2014 to 2016. "Out of concern for escalation, the United States became cautious even about the types and capabilities of weapons it provided to Ukraine,' Takei said. "I believe that the credibility of extended deterrence has been significantly shaken for countries under the U.S. nuclear umbrella.' Song Seong-jong, a retired South Korean military officer, said Ukraine's fate after earlier giving up its nuclear weapons served as a warning. "Do you think Trump will retaliate with nuclear weapons for the sake of South Korea?' he said, referring to a potential conflict with North Korea. Song doesn't think Trump would. "This is an inconvenient truth,' he said. Trump and top administration officials have repeatedly stated in public that the U.S. is committed to remaining a Pacific power. In meetings last month with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed enhancing security cooperation, according to State Department statements. Adding to the anxiety in Asia has been Beijing's rapid expansion of its nuclear arsenal, a decisive break with China's earlier preference for a small force sufficient to maintain deterrence. North Korea's fielding of increasingly sophisticated ballistic nuclear missiles has also heightened concern. China has the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal globally, adding about 100 new warheads per year since 2023, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in its annual inventory of the world's most dangerous weapons published in June. China has some 600 nuclear warheads, while the U.S. and Russia have stockpiles of 3,700 and 4,309 warheads respectively, according to estimates by the research institute. Tatsuaki Takahashi, a Hiroshima native and grandson of an atomic bomb survivor, stands at a busy Tokyo intersection on May 29. He says views on nuclear weapons in Japan are shifting as memories of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki fade. | REUTERS In 2016, before the presidential election, Trump suggested Japan and South Korea might need nuclear weapons because of the threat posed by North Korea and China. Actions he has taken at the start of his second term have made some in Asia think he was right. Since his reelection, Trump and senior members of his administration have raised questions about America's commitment to NATO, with the U.S. president saying the U.S. wouldn't defend member countries unless they increase defense spending. Trump's trade war, which targets even U.S. allies, has further eroded faith in American commitment to long-time friends. After threatening to impose tariffs of 25% on Japan and South Korea, Trump last month reached deals with Tokyo and Seoul that put a 15% tax on imports from both countries. "Trump's tariffs hit allies the hardest,' said Itsunori Onodera, a former defense minister and currently the ruling party's policy chief. "The tariffs risk pushing them closer to China, the very countries the U.S. should be aligning with' to counter Beijing. Ryoichi Oriki, who served as chief of staff of the Joint Staff of Japan's Self-Defense Forces from 2009 to 2012, said the American president's "volatility on trade' has created doubts about U.S. security commitments. "The U.S. has become a variable, not a constant, which affects trust,' he said. In South Korea, former President Yoon Suk Yeol raised the prospect in early 2023 that Seoul could be forced to pursue nuclear weapons in the face of a mounting threat from North Korea. He backed off later that year when Seoul extracted extra security assurances from the Biden administration with the signing of the Washington Declaration. That pact included giving South Korea greater insight into U.S. nuclear planning for any conflict with North Korea. Yoon was impeached after plunging the country into crisis when he declared martial law in December last year. While newly elected President Lee has rejected the idea of nuclear armament, his intelligence agency chief, Lee Jong-seok, this year called for Seoul to secure the right to enrich uranium to demonstrate its "potential nuclear capabilities.' It would be a mistake to "interpret South Korean nuclear ambitions as a bluff,' says Ely Ratner, who served as assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs in the Biden administration. South Korea's foreign ministry said the government isn't considering the acquisition of nuclear weapons. Changing attitudes There is broad public support for acquiring nuclear weapons in South Korea, in the face of threats from nuclear-armed Pyongyang. In Japan, public opinion is constrained by the weight of its history — though attitudes are changing. A poll in March found that 41% of respondents were in favor of revising Japan's Three Non-Nuclear Principles. In a similar poll three years ago by the Kioicho Strategy Institute, a consultancy and think tank, just 20% backed the idea. Even some Japanese with personal connections to the atomic attacks are calling for a shift on the bomb. Takahashi, the Hiroshima native, said his grandfather was just 4 years old when the bomb was dropped on the city at 8.15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, but could still vividly recall the flash-and-boom and the windows in his home shattering. Some of Takahashi's relatives went missing during the disaster and are presumed to have died, he said. Growing up in Hiroshima, Takahashi believed that diplomacy and dialogue could help avert a repeat of that nuclear nightmare. Now 28, and living as an IT programmer in Tokyo, he thinks Japan may need a show of nuclear strength to achieve that goal. "Personally, I think allowing U.S. nuclear weapons into Japan might be unavoidable as a form of deterrence,' said Takahashi, who runs a group called Youth Vote Hiroshima, which aims to engage young people in his home city in politics through social media. "I'm still against using nuclear weapons, but just possessing them has strategic value.' Takahashi said Japanese views on the issue are changing as the memory of the bombings dims and younger people think more critically about the need for deterrence. Kunihiko Sakuma, an atomic bomb survivor, stands in front of the Cenotaph for the Victims of the Atomic Bomb at the Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima, on June 11. He is disturbed by the growing number of Japanese who are adopting the view that nuclear weapons can provide protection. | REUTERS There are signs that even in Hiroshima, where the 80th anniversary of the attack was commemorated earlier this month, some people are increasingly reluctant to dwell on the past. A survey published in April by public broadcaster NHK found more than 30% of people aged between 18 and 24 in the city and surrounding prefecture who had not heard the accounts of the city's atomic bomb survivors said that they did not wish to do so. That was more than 6 points higher than a similar survey five years ago and higher than a 25% figure for the rest of Japan. The most common reason given was that the accounts were too horrific. Threshold state Both Japan and South Korea have committed not to develop or acquire nuclear weapons by signing the NPT. But security experts describe Japan as a threshold nuclear-weapons state — meaning it has the technical capacity, and could obtain the materials, to build and launch a bomb if it was determined to do so. Within a couple of years, Tokyo could build a nuclear device small enough to fit on a missile, said Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a Washington-based think tank. One senior lawmaker close to Ishiba said that Japan could build a nuclear weapon in as little as six months, and that it should consider doing so if trust in the U.S. nuclear umbrella broke down. Japan has advanced nuclear know-how with a long-established fleet of civilian reactors, a sophisticated defense industry and technology from its space program, including solid-fuel rockets. This would allow it to build ballistic missiles to deliver a nuclear payload, experts say. As a by-product of its nuclear fuel consumption, the government says Japan has about 45 metric tons of plutonium — the fissionable material needed to make a bomb. Japan also has the capacity to enrich uranium, another path to produce weapons-grade nuclear material. South Korea has also developed and deployed a number of weapons that analysts say could deliver nuclear bombs — including a submarine designed to launch conventional ballistic missiles, and increasingly powerful missiles that could reach North Korea or China. But South Korea is not as close to the threshold as Japan because it lacks the capacity to reprocess fuel to extract plutonium or enrich uranium, despite operating 26 reactors to generate power. Seoul aborted a clandestine weapons program in the 1970s under pressure from Washington and ratified the NPT in 1975. Experts predict it would take several years for Seoul to build a nuclear weapon, even if it overcame these hurdles. "Even if we announce a state of emergency and throw all national resources behind it, the steelmaking, the facility building and making fissile materials and so on, it's not easy. I'd say four to five years,' said Cheon Myeong-guk, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. Beyond the technical hurdles, other factors inhibit U.S. partners from developing their own nuclear weapons. If Japan began to build a bomb in breach of its NPT commitments, it could face sanctions by the United Nations and lose access to the imported nuclear fuel it needs to feed its nuclear power industry. The densely populated archipelago also lacks an area suitable for nuclear testing. Despite Trump's earlier apparent openness to Japan and South Korea acquiring nukes, it remains unclear if his administration would ultimately agree. The State Department said Trump and Vice President JD Vance "have spoken frequently about their opposition to the spread of nuclear weapons.' Beijing would be highly unlikely to remain passive if it learned that either Seoul or Tokyo were taking this path. A nuclear armed U.S. ally in East Asia could end up precipitating the conflict that acquiring nuclear weapons was intended to avoid, according to Alexandra Bell, a former Biden administration official who was directly involved in nuclear deterrence talks with Tokyo and Seoul. "Having doubts about the U.S. commitment to extended deterrence and actually pursuing proliferation are two very different things,' Bell said. "The latter action would certainly provoke a response from the Chinese.' Any move to acquire nuclear weapons might prompt China to further build up its nuclear stockpile or increase the likelihood of conflict if Beijing perceived such actions as being a prelude to war, she said. China's foreign ministry accused Japan and South Korea of "promoting so-called 'extended deterrence' to justify military expansion and military provocation.' Japan in particular, it said, claims to "advocate for a 'nuclear-free world,' while in reality relying on the U.S. 'nuclear umbrella' to cooperate with the deployment of U.S. strategic forces. These practices are hypocritical and self-contradictory.' Japan's evolving attitudes to the bomb have dismayed some survivors of the 1945 attacks. Atomic bomb survivor Kunihiko Sakuma, 80, said he cannot understand that today a growing number of Japanese people are coming around to the view that nuclear weapons can offer protection, given the horrors he and others in Hiroshima experienced. He was an infant when the bomb fell, curled up on a futon on the floor of his family home as his mother sorted the laundry. There was a flash and then suddenly everything went dark, his mother later recounted to him. She described how she had whisked him up and carried him on her back to a nearby shelter through a radioactive shower of soot and ash known as "black rain.' "Just because we're under the U.S. nuclear umbrella doesn't mean we're safe,' he said. "If nuclear weapons are used, it's over, isn't it. Real security only exists when there's mutual trust between nations.'
