Trump claims he had 'denuclearization' deal with Russia and planned to 'bring China along'

President Donald Trump claims he was 'very close' to striking a "deal" to reduce nuclear weapons in Russia and the United States during the end of his first term, and planned to "bring China along," but that the 2020 election threw a wrench in his plan.

The MAGA leader made the comment during a lengthy sit-down interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity in the Oval Office. Part one of the interview aired Wednesday, and the second part of the interview aired late Thursday.

"I was dealing with — at the very end — I was dealing with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin about a denuclearization of Russia and the United States," Trump told Hannity. "And then we were going to bring China along on that one, because they have much less than we do."

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He later added, "I was very close to having a deal. I would've made a deal with Putin on that. Denuclearization. It's very dangerous and very expensive, okay? Both. But we had a bad election that interrupted us and that's why I'm here now."

Trump said China is expected to grow its stockpile of nuclear weapons to match the United States in the next five or six years.

"They're trying to get there, unfortunately, but right now they have much less in terms of nuclear," he said.

Trump has publicly decried nuclear weapons in the past and said they should be the "absolute last step." He has also called proliferation a major problem, but has refused to rule out using them.

In a 2016 interview with the New York Times, Trump previously said nuclear capability was the “single biggest problem” facing the world.

“Power of weaponry today is beyond anything ever thought of, or even, you know, it’s unthinkable, the power,” he said. “It’s a very scary nuclear world,” he added. “Biggest problem, to me, in the world, is nuclear, and proliferation.”

Watch the clip below or at this link.