U.S. President Donald Trump is denying a Wednesday report that he asked for a tenfold increase in the country’s nuclear arsenal during a Pentagon meeting in July.
It was the same meeting where Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also reportedly called Trump a “moron.”
NBC reported Wednesday that Trump made the comments on July 20 in response to a briefing slide that showed a steady decrease in the U.S.’s nuclear weapons since the 1960s. The article said after Trump saw the slide he said he wanted a bigger stockpile of weapons, not the bottom position on the downward-sloping curve.
The article cited three unnamed officials who were in the room at the time.
WATCH: Rex Tillerson disagrees with Donald Trump on nuclear weapons expansion plans
However, Trump took to Twitter Wednesday and denied the allegations, saying it’s “pure fiction, made up to demean.” He then asked, “at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!”
The NBC report stated that some of Trump’s key advisers were also in the room during the Pentagon meeting, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. They briefly explained to Trump the legal and practical hurdles to a nuclear buildup, according to NBC News.
It was also reported, soon after the meeting ended, one of the officials heard Tillerson say Trump is a “moron.”
During the height of the Cold War, the stockpile of nuclear weapons from Russia and the U.S. was at its peak due to an ongoing arms race. However, after decades of international disarmament treaties (which were signed by every president since Ronald Regan), the stockpile of nuclear weapons has steadily decreased around the world.
Although the number of nuclear weapons is decreasing, spending is on the rise in 2017, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
In February, Trump said he was going to build up the U.S. nuclear arsenal to ensure it is at the “top of the pack,” and said the U.S. has fallen behind in its atomic weapons capacity.
WATCH: Donald Trump doubles down on calls to increase nuclear arms
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