Trump reinforced U.S. ‘umbrella’
President-elect Donald Trump’s use of Twitter to bypass media curation has merits that are likely to make such communication characteristic of modern politics. Twitter offers little scope for elaboration, especially by a political figure who has not yet assumed office. Still, it is difficult to find any basis for the over-the-top emotional response by critics.
Let’s look at what the president-elect accomplished by his remarks, and assess the evidence that may have contributed to its timing.
On Dec. 21, the presidentelect met with the nation’s senior military leadership, including officers with responsibility for managing our nuclear deterrent; he got an earful. On Dec. 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his senior military leadership for their annual review of Russia’s defense capabilities and future needs. Putin said, “It is necessary to strengthen the combat potential of the strategic nuclear forces.”
On Dec. 22, the presidentelect responded to Putin: the U.S. “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes”; and reinforced his commitment to sustaining the credibility of the U.S. nuclear “umbrella” in saying the next day, “Let it be an arms race. … We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.”
The president-elect’s remarks are consistent with 70 years of U.S. policy.
The most important diplomatic achievement of the nuclear era is the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The treaty stopped the proliferation of nuclear weapons by allies because they were convinced that the U.S. would provide a nuclear “umbrella.”
China has multiplied its number of warheads five times in the past decade, and Russia is poised for a vast “breakout’ from two to five times or more of its number of warheads after New START ends in 2021.
Trump reassured Asian and European allies of the reliability of the U.S. nuclear “umbrella” as have his predecessors. The U.S. would not allow the vast Chinese and Russian nuclear modernization to undermine their commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.