President-elect Donald Trump is drawing attention after his Twitter post referring to increasing the country's nuclear arsenal.

Trump tweeted that "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes."

Today, a Trump spokesman said the president-elect was only responding to Russia, China and other countries talking about expanding their own nuclear capabilities. Russian President Vladimir Putin also downplayed the tweet.

Reactions on Long Island depended on what people thought of Trump overall.

"I agree with him partially that we need to again become a strong country," said Mark Munisteri, of Merrick. "He's more real. He says what most people really want to say."

"He should look for more solutions towards peaceful things, rather than nukes. Maybe he should concentrate more on having a press conference, rather than tweeting," countered Jay Singh, of Hicksville.



Margaret Melkonian, the executive director of the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, told News 12 that the tweet was alarming and dismaying.



"It kind of sounded again like the 1980s," said Melkonian. "We're going back in time to the Cold War."