A former nuclear weapons officer tore into Donald Trump Wednesday after reports surfaced the GOP nominee suggested in a briefing with a foreign policy adviser that the United States shouldn't hesitate to engage in nuclear warfare.

"Maybe [Trump] means it, maybe he doesn't," John Noonan told the Washington Examiner. "But it's clear you can't roll the dice on this lunatic. Stakes are too high, his knowledge and judgment is too low."

Noonan's remarks came after MSNBC's Joe Scarborough claimed Wednesday he was told by a source that Trump pressed a foreign policy adviser on using nuclear weapons against America's enemies.

"Several months ago, a foreign policy expert went to advise Donald Trump," the cable news host said in reference to the reportedly 60-minute briefing. "And three times he asked about the use of nuclear weapons — three times he asked ... 'If we have them why can't we use them?'"

Anecdotes like this, Scarborough added, is "one of the reasons why [Trump] doesn't have foreign policy experts around him."

In reaction to the MSNBC host's anecdote, Noonan, who at one point held one of two keys necessary to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile strike, blasted the GOP nominee as a dangerously uninformed "lunatic."

"[T]he whole idea behind nuclear deterrence is that you don't use the damn things. So I thought the mission credible and worthy," Noonan said on social media. "There are a hell of a lot of bad actors out there who have nukes. They are restrained only by our ability to instantly lay waste to them."

"The nuke triad, which Trump doesn't have a clue about, has been the single greatest contributor to global peace for decades. You heard me," he added. "I don't know if Scarborough is telling whole truth here. Anonymous sources suck. But if he is … buckle the hell up."

Noonan argued Trump's reported eagerness to launch nuclear warheads would further destabilize the world and undo 60 years of deterrence policy.

"This would be the single greatest strategic shift in U.S. national security in decades. In a Trump presidency, our foreign policy would be this: 'Leave our alliances, fall back on a nuclear first use policy.' Does he understand just how f'ing dangerous that is?" he asked.

"[G]eopolitics aside, I can't get my mind off the young officers on nuke alert right now. Wondering if they'll soon answer to a madman," he added. "And be asked to do a duty that should morally be asked of no human being, ever."