Wednesday in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump said an NBC News report that he wanted to increase the U.S. nuclear arsenal tenfold was “fake news.”

Trump said, “I never discussed increasing it. I want it in perfect shape. That was fake news by NBC, which gives a lot of fake news lately. No, I never discussed. I think someone said I want ten times the nuclear weapons that we have right now. Right now we have so many nuclear weapons. I want them in perfect condition, perfect shape. That’s the only thing hive discussed. General Mattis put out a statement or is putting out a statement saying that that was fake news, that it was just mentioned that way. And it’s frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write, and people should look into it.”

He continued, “No, I want to have absolutely perfectly maintained, which we are in the process of doing, nuclear force. But when they said I want ten times what we have right now, it’s totally unnecessary, believe me. Because I know, I know what we have right now.”

He added, “We won’t need an increase. But I want modernization, and I want total rehabilitation. It’s got to be in tip-top shape.”

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