The White House on Thursday lambasted Donald Trump's suggestion that Asian allies should develop nuclear weapons, saying it would shatter doctrine held for decades, with "catastrophic" consequences.
Following the Republican frontrunner's declaration that, as president, he would withdraw troops from South Korea and Japan and allow those two countries to develop nukes, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes offered a scathing rebuke.
"The entire premise of American foreign policy as it relates to nuclear weapons for the last 70 years has been focused on preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons," said Rhodes, one of President Barack Obama's closest aides.
"That has been the position of bipartisan administrations, of everybody who has occupied the Oval Office."
"It would be catastrophic for the United States to shift its position and indicate that we somehow support the proliferation of nuclear weapons."
The remarks -- coming during a top-level nuclear security summit in Washington -- is yet another sign of how much Trump's rhetoric on the campaign trail is bleeding into America's relations with the rest of the world.
Read the full story at SpaceDaily