In a Feb. 10 article, “Newly Unbound, Trump Weighs More Nuclear Arms and Underground Tests,” New York Times reporters David Sanger and William Broad raise the possibility that in a post-New START world, the U.S. might be attempting to spur negotiations on a new arms accord, but focus perhaps more on the way that the U.S. may use this period for more nuclear testing, and building up its nuclear forces.
The authors evaluate the presentation by U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, on Feb. 6, in which he noted that the United States was now free “to strengthen deterrence on behalf of the American people.” The United States will “complete our ongoing nuclear modernization programs”—a reference to hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on new silos, new submarines and new bombers—and he noted that Washington “retains nondeployed nuclear capability that can be used to address the emerging security environment, if directed by the President.”
