President Donald Trump said he’d like the U.S. to “denuclearize” along with Russia and China, with the goal of cutting America’s military budget in half. The comments come as government officials in Europe were reportedly alarmed over Trump’s recent comments about the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Trump made the remarks about his plans for America’s nuclear future Thursday in the Oval Office while speaking with reporters, where he kept insisting the world is more peaceful when he’s in charge.

“There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons, we already have so many,” Trump said. “You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons.”

The president has a long-known fear of nuclear devastation, arguably the only relatable thing about the man, but Trump’s motivations will no doubt be questioned, given the way he’s cozied up to authoritarian leaders around the world.

“One of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia,” Trump said. “And I want to say let’s cut our military budget in half. And we can do that. And I think we’ll be able to.”

Trump said China may have fewer nuclear weapons but that it’s maybe five or six years away from catching up with the United States, and warned that if nuclear weapons are ever used in the future, it’s going to be “oblivion.”

“If there’s ever a time when we need nuclear weapons, like the kind of weapons that we’re building and that Russia has and that China has to a lesser extent but will have, that’s going to be a very sad day. That’s going to be probably oblivion,” Trump said.

Thursday’s White House press conference, which is available on YouTube through the Associated Press, also touched on other topics such as international trade. Trump said that he wanted to impose more tariffs on Europe when he was in office back in 2020, but the covid-19 pandemic interrupted that plan.

Vice President JD Vance is currently in Germany for the Munich Security Conference, but he will not be meeting with at least one of America’s most important allies. Vance has reportedly snubbed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, according to Politico, in what the news outlet has characterized as a “serious diplomatic rebuke.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is also in Europe, and making many of the same signals to America’s allies, suggesting that the U.S. shouldn’t be responsible for helping on the continent if another war breaks out.

“Make no mistake, President Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into ‘Uncle Sucker,’” Hegseth said during a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is sending signals that it’s ready to chat with America’s geopolitical adversaries like Russia and China. Anyone who doesn’t understand how quickly things can change when a strongman gets into office is probably going to find a lot of things out very quickly.