Rachel Maddow took aim Monday night at President Donald Trump for “robbing” America’s nuclear safety funds to reportedly pay for the renovations to the Qatari jet he plans to use as Air Force One.
The MSNBC host began “The Rachel Maddow Show” episode by explaining that many states in the northern tier of America have underground nuclear missile silos that were built in the 1960s in the Cold War and are still standing today. “We as a country still have thousands of nuclear weapons that we maintain in a constant state of readiness because, sure, why not?” Maddow observed. “If you’re going to decide as a country to do that, one thing you can’t then do is let those nuclear weapons and those nuclear weapons sites fall into disrepair.”
“This isn’t like old books or soccer balls that you stashed in a milk crate on a shelf in your garage,” Maddow continued. “These are real, live nuclear weapons that need upkeep and modernization. They need care and tending.” The problem is that America has reportedly failed to do exactly that.
“Turns out these silos we dug starting in the 1960s aren’t going to last forever. They’re leaking. They’re crumbling,” Maddow noted. “We need new silos. We need new physical sites for these ground-based nukes, and if that sounds expensive, you are right. But also you’ve got to, right?”
Maddow then turned her attention to Trump, who the MSNBC host said “is now robbing the Ground-Based Nuclear Missiles Safety and Modernization budget for himself.”
Maddow quoted reports citing a $934 million transfer of funds from the Pentagon’s project to modernize America’s aging nuclear missile silos to an unnamed project that budget experts have begun to suspect includes the renovation of the luxury jet Trump was gifted by the royal family of Qatar.
“So our aging, leaky ground-launched nuclear missile system needs some attention, needs a little TLC,” Maddow recapped. “But Trump is taking the money from that program for himself to instead fix up this plane that he wants, which, yes, he will use as Air Force One while he’s president. But then, remember, he plans to keep it for himself after his presidency as part of his ‘presidential library,’ which is a thing that does not exist.”
Maddow did not hold back from that point on, blasting Trump for prioritizing his own, superficial desires over the needs of America. “These guys are all the same and they all want gold toilets,” the MSNBC anchor concluded. “They all want to rob the country they lead blind to give them gold gewgaws that make them feel special. But that’s more fun than actually governing, right?”
You can watch the “Rachel Maddow Show” segment yourself in the video above.
