The president-elect is saying to Russia, "You want to make threatening speeches, let me show you what a threatening speech looks like," Gingrich told Fox News Sunday.
Russia and China have been building their nuclear capabilities, Gingrich alleged, while the US has allowed its to "weaken."
"I think for the next president to say, 'You know, we're going to have to systematically rebuild our nuclear capability,' is exactly right," Gingrich said.
Gingrich also commented that Iran was attempting to develop a nuclear bomb and that North Korea was attempting to make missiles that could deliver a nuclear payload to the US.
Iran signed a nuclear deal last year after a decade of negotiations and has, international monitors reported as recently as last week, been abiding by its agreement.
"He's also serving notice," Gingrich continued. "If he succeeds economically at making America great again and we get back to 5% or 6% real growth, we can outproduce everybody. And I think what he's telling both the Chinese and the Russians is, ‘Do you really want to be in this competition? Because if there's going to be a competition, we have the potential to win it."
Apparently Gingrich's answer to his Fox News interviewer's question, "Are we in an arms race with Russia?" is "not yet."
Trump tweeted on December 22 that the US "must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes."
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016
Gingrich also praised Trump's ability to threaten world peace in only 140 characters.
The Hill reports that after Trump's tweet, spokesman Jason Miller (who yesterday decided not to continue being Trump's mouthpiece in the White House) clarified that the president-elect was somehow referring to the need to prevent nuclear proliferation.
However, MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski contradicted that December 24, saying she recalled Trump telling her off the air that he'd relish an arms buildup. "Let it be an arms race, we will outmatch them at every pass… and outlast them all," she remembered him saying, according to The Hill.
