Anything less will be said to be failure to prove the NBC story and will be called fake news by Trump and his toadies.
You mean anything less should be viewed as a failure by NBC to keep from editorializing and sensationalizing a news story to suit some sort of agenda.
If Trump, as you stated, looked at a presentation and expressed a momentary desire based on that limited knowledge to reach those levels again and then began asking for more information regarding it, simply presenting the story singularly as "Trump wanted tenfold increase in nuclear arsenal" is a sensational take on the story that indicates a media derelict in their duty to provide the American People with all the relevant facts and information, as oppose to cherry picking in an effort to suite and fit an agenda they desperately want to craft and present.
Indeed, some of the very sources they use for the sensationalist, clickbait-esque, misleading headline, even indicate clearly how serious such a desire was:
"they did not take Trump’s desire for more nuclear weapons to be literally instructing the military to increase the actual numbers"
Of course, that's buried SEVEN paragraphs and a large picture into the story; a story that up until that point was treating the statement as if it WAS a legitimate and literal desire for the military to increase the actual numbers.
Indeed, the line after that indicates a far more honest and relevant type of headline that would be better at factually informing the public of the potential matter and actual issue, which would be something akin to "Questions raised about Trump's familiarity with U.S. Nuclear posture". However, Trump lacking familiarity with a matter is far less sensational, far less scandalous, fall less damning, and far less robust for Democrats to use as a means of attack then "Trump wants 10 times more nukes!!!!"
There's zero evidence that any actual order or suggestion to expand ever happened. There's zero evidence that beyond one throw away comment that anything further had occurred regarding it. There's as much evidence that he WASN'T being literal and was simply seeking further information as there was to it being a sincere desire or want. And yet the story focus almost entirely on the matter as if the one throw away comment was Trump Administration policy now.
It doesn't take a Trump "toadie" to think that's utter bull**** and a dereliction of duty on the part of media; just someone with an ounce of integrity, honest, and objectivity that bothers to take the time to read the full story.