The useful idiot speaks ...

Illustration: Lazaro Gamio/Axios

Dementia anyone? Dazed & Confused. Facts don't matter. Take you pick.

Reality check: Trump began his announcement by claiming the U.S. has more nukes than any other country. Russia, in fact, has the largest stockpile.

He also suggested the U.S. has completed its modernization efforts. They are, in fact, very much still in progress.

• The president then claimed China would catch up to the U.S. "within five years." Experts doubt that.
• While Beijing's arsenal is "growing more quickly than it grew in the past," said Jon Wolfsthal, the Federation of American Scientists' director of global risk, "this is not an immediate 'they're going to match us' problem."
• "By no calculation can they be considered having parity with us or a nuclear peer."

Then Trump got to the red meat: "Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately."

State of play: The administration has offered no additional details
about what, precisely, the president meant.

Data: Federation of American Scientists; Chart: Axios Visuals

The useful idiot speaks ...