It was not a non-proliferation statement. That statement is perpetuating the issue. Lead by example. Don't expect everyone else to all of a sudden start reducing their stockpiles while the US is building more. "well no one else is doing the right thing so we don't have to either!!" is not diplomacy. Add on top of that, the stockpile in the US and Russia is already so obnoxiously and obviously "overkill" (literally. fucking literally.) that any move to increase is just a dick-waving power play. It does nothing in any realm of deterrence. No one is saying "shit, well we would have nuked 'em back when they only had 6970 nukes, but now they have 7500! Fuck that!". It was pure grandiose, pure arrogance, flaunt-your-might bullshit. It only serves to aggravate issues. The bullshit, hypocritical line at the end only serves as a backdoor way out to say "no! See, I really don't like nukes! everything is fine!"
A non-proliferation message would have been a declaration that we would reduce our stockpile by 90-95% and invest instead in continuing development of anti-missile techs, as well as diplomacy. Protect ourselves from the threat directly, instead of ever-escalating mutually assured destruction.
(by the way, if we reduced our stockpile by 95%, we'd still have the second-most nukes in the world.)
