The Poynter Institute Menu Donate State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin Issues * All Issues * Online hoaxes * Coronavirus * Health Care * Immigration * Extremism * Taxes * Marijuana * Environment * Crime * Guns * Foreign Policy * LGBTQ+ People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis Media * PunditFact * Tucker Carlson * Sean Hannity * Rachel Maddow * Bloggers * PolitiFact Videos Campaigns * 2024 Elections Truth-o-Meter * True * Mostly True * Half True * Mostly False * False * Pants on Fire Promises * Biden Promise Tracker * Trump-O-Meter * Obameter * Latest Promises About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Suggest a Fact-check * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters Donate #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up English Español ### Get PolitiFact in your inbox. * Weekly Email Newsletter * Daily Email Newsletter Your Email Address Sign Up ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 9, 2017 in a tweet: \"My first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") * National * Military * Nuclear * Donald Trump ![\\"Louis](\\" By Louis Jacobson August 9, 2017 # Fact-checking Donald Trump\'s misleading tweet about U.S. nuclear arsenal One day after threatening North Korea with \"fire and fury like the world has never seen\" if it menaces the United States, President Donald Trump tweeted about the strength of U.S. nuclear weapons and improvements made on his watch. Trump wrote at 4:56 a.m: \"My first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before.\" > My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear > arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before.... > > — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017 This tweet is not accurate. A week after taking office, Trump issued a presidential memorandum on \"rebuilding the U.S. Armed Forces.\" One sentence in this memo directs the defense secretary to \"initiate a new Nuclear Posture Review to ensure that the United States nuclear deterrent is modern, robust, flexible, resilient, ready, and appropriately tailored to deter 21st-century threats and reassure our allies.\" The review effort kicked off in April 2017, according to news reports. However, this wasn’t Trump’s first order as president — more than a dozen earlier executive orders and memoranda are listed on the White House website. More importantly, asking for a Nuclear Posture Review is not unusual; it’s expected. The Defense Department’s web page for the Nuclear Posture Review describes it as \"legislatively mandated.\" HELP KEEP POLITIFACT GOING! MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT FACT-CHECKING Indeed, it’s common for new presidents to put their stamp on the nation’s nuclear capabilities by issuing a new review within two years after entering office. Bill Clinton produced one in 1994. George W. Bush produced one in 2002. And Barack Obama produced one in 2010. (Apparently, the Trump administration hasn’t updated its Pentagon web page on the Nuclear Posture Review. When we accessed it on Aug. 9, it still had a photo and \"notable quote\" by Hillary Clinton on it.) A larger issue with Trump’s assurance: Experts unanimously said the U.S. nuclear arsenal could not have improved to the extent Trump described in just over 200 days. There have been incremental improvements, but they have been trickling out under a plan begun under Trump’s predecessor, Obama. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" black/4590875651af69b2c789ceab409664dd.jpg\\") ![](\\" black/72988380e8c8bd188dc360d11552e4a0.jpg\\") X posts stated on August 18, 2024 in X post Photo shows “pallets or containers of bricks have been found near locations designated for protests related to the Democratic National Convention” ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Caleb McCullough • August 20, 2024 The United States is engaged in a multiyear program to modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal, including the rebuilding of the Minuteman III system, which launches intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the Trident II submarine- launched missile systems, as well as the refurbishment of nuclear warheads and construction of new and upgraded facilities, such as a uranium processing facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. (Here’s an updated rundown of the modernization plan published by the Arms Control Association.) The modernization effort was estimated to cost roughly $35 billion a year over a decade, or 5 percent to 6 percent of planned national defense spending, according to Congressional Budget Office reports released in December 2013 and January 2015. Its most recent estimate, released in February 2017, CBO said the modernization effort would cost $400 billion between 2017 and 2026, or $52 billion more than CBO’s 2015 estimate, \"largely because modernization programs will be ramping up.\" Cumulatively, total costs could reach $1 trillion over the next 30 years. ![](\\" Experts panned Trump\'s boast of rapid improvements. \"It would be a pretty fantastic claim under even Cold War standards given the size and scope of the arsenal,\" said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University\'s Center on Global Energy Policy and a former State Department official under Obama. But given the restrictions under the New START treaty that went into force in 2011, it would be \"pretty difficult, if not impossible, to achieve except in a crash, well-publicized effort.\" Matthew Bunn, a nuclear-policy specialist who teaches at Harvard University\'s John F. Kennedy School of Government, called Trump’s claim \"simply false.\" \"There is a total of nothing that has changed substantially about the U.S. nuclear arsenal over the few months that Trump has been in office,\" Bunn said. \"We have the same missiles and bombers, with the same nuclear weapons, that we had before.\" Bottom line: In the scale of decades, six months is a blink of the eye, experts said. This is not the first time Trump has sought to paint a picture of weak stewardship of the U.S. nuclear arsenal under Obama. As early as June 2015, Trump said, \"Even our nuclear arsenal doesn\'t work. It came out recently they have equipment that is 30 years old. They don\'t know if it worked.\" We rated that False. ![\\"\\"](\\"//pixel.watch/uqy6\\") Our ruling Trump said, \"My first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before.\" What Trump did shortly after taking office was neither his first order nor a unique action; every new president in recent years has requested a Nuclear Posture Review. In addition, the ongoing nuclear modernization plan -- which dates back to the Obama administration and will take decades to complete -- would not have notched achievements in six months sufficient to be characterized as \"far stronger and more powerful than ever before.\" We rate the statement False. **EDITOR\'S NOTE, Aug. 9, 2017, 4:30 p.m.:** This article has been updated to include CBO\'s 2017 cost estimate. Share the Facts 2017-08-09 20:27:47 UTC PolitiFact ![\\"PolitiFact\\"](\\" logo-big.jpg\\"/) 2 1 7 ![\\"PolitiFact](\\" false.jpg\\") PolitiFact Rating: False \"My first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before.\" Donald Trump President ![](\\" a tweet Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2017-08-09 Read More info #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Donald Trump, tweet, Aug. 9, 2017 White House, presidential memorandum on rebuilding the U.S. Armed Forces, Jan. 27, 2017 Defense Department, Nuclear Posture Review home page, accessed Aug. 9, 2017 Nuclear Posture Review, 1994, 2002 and 2010 Congressional Budget Office, \"Projected Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2014 to 2023,\" Dec. 20, 2013 Congressional Budget Office, \"Projected Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2015 to 2024,\" Jan. 22, 2015 Arms Control Association, \"U.S. Nuclear Modernization Programs\" (fact sheet), accessed Aug. 9, 2017 New York Times, \"Trump Threatens ‘Fire and Fury’ Against North Korea if It Endangers U.S.,\" Aug. 8, 2017 CNN, \"Pentagon begins review of nuclear weapons policy,\" April 17, 2017 PolitiFact, \"Donald Trump says \'our nuclear arsenal doesn\'t work,\' \" June 18, 2015 Email interview with John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, Aug. 9, 2017 Email interview with Richard Nephew, senior research scholar at Columbia University\'s Center on Global Energy Policy, Aug. 9, 2017 Email interview with Matthew Bunn, nuclear-policy specialist who teaches at Harvard University\'s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Aug. 9, 2017 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Louis Jacobson ![](\\" ![](\\" Jon Tester stated on September 8, 2024 in a Facebook ad: Tim Sheehy “would let politicians like him ban abortion, with no exceptions for rape or to save a woman’s life, and criminalize women.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • September 12, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on September 7, 2024 in a rally in Mosinee, Wis.: Vice President Kamala Harris “cast the tiebreaking votes that caused the worst inflation in American history, costing a typical American family $28,000.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • September 8, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on August 22, 2024 in su discurso de aceptación en la Convención Nacional Demócrata: El expresidente Donald Trump “tiene la intención de promulgar lo que, en efecto, es un 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My first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before