As he alway does in negotiating ?
Trump goes hard at his opponent to try and soften them up….
This time Trump has warned the Russians that America will drop out a nuclear arms treaty …..
President Obama warned of the same thing, but fears of another nuclear arms race had him back away from taking any action…
We’ll see how this goes….
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), signed decades ago in a landmark meeting between former President Ronald Reagan and then-leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986, allows the U.S. to counter Chinese efforts to amass arms in the Pacific but prevents the U.S. from deploying new weapons in response, The Times noted.
China, however, is not a signatory to the treaty and faces no limitations in developing intermediate-range nuclear missiles. As a signatory, the Times reported, Russia has been violating the pact since at least 2014.
Former President Barack Obama chose to remain in the pact after objections from Germany and other European countries and to stave off another arms race, the paper notes.
The White House told the newspaper that no official decision has yet been made, but sources told the Times that President Trump is expected to sign off on leaving the treaty soon. According to the Times, the move would mark would Trump’s first reversal on an arm controls treaty.
Trump pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal in May but, the Times notes, that agreement was not a treaty and prevented only Iran from producing nuclear weapons.
The last president to withdraw from a major arms treaty was former President George W. Bush in 2002 when he pulled out of the nuclear Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
The news comes as Bolton departs for Moscow for high-level talks with Russian officials. He told The Times that he will inform Putin of the U.S. decision to leave the INF. Bolton declined to comment on his upcoming trip to the newspaper….