Scarborough: Trump asked adviser why US can’t use nuclear weapons

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump asked a foreign policy adviser multiple times in an hourlong briefing why the U.S. can’t use its nuclear weapons, MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough said Wednesday morning.

{mosads}Scarborough revealed the story while he was interviewing former CIA Director Michael Hayden on “Morning Joe” about Trump’s campaign.

“Several months ago, a foreign policy expert went to advise Donald Trump,” Scarborough said. “And three times he asked about the use of nuclear weapons — three times he asked. At one point, ‘If we have them, why can’t we use them?’”

“That’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t have foreign policy experts around him,” Scarborough added.

Trump’s presidential campaign said the anecdote is false.

“There is no truth to this,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks told The Hill in an email.

During the campaign, Trump has veered away from what is now the official U.S. policy of seeking to eradicate nuclear weapons.

He has openly suggested that major powers such as Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia obtain nuclear weapons, in what experts say could lead to a dramatic proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Trump later appeared to walk the statement back, though his position has been hard to pin down.

Separately, the GOP nominee has refused to rule out using nuclear weapons in Europe or against extremists such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“I don’t want to take cards off the table; I’d never do that,” Trump said in March.

Updated at 10 a.m. Julian Hattem contributed.