May 23, 2025

Talks About Future of New START Still Haven’t Started

In January, shortly after his second inauguration, U.S. President Donald Trump said: “Tremendous amounts of money are being spent on nuclear, and the destructive capability is something that we don’t even want to talk about .... So, we want to see if we can denuclearize, and I think that’s very possible.”

Nuclear and defense strategists have long understood that the development and deployment of strategic missile interceptors is ineffective against determined nuclear-armed adversaries because it could lead them to build more numerous and sophisticated offensive missile systems — at relatively lower cost and more quickly -- to overwhelm and evade missile defenses.