Nuclear Armageddon?
Yawn — Ho hum — Swipe left. Just another topic I couldn’t care less about. And besides, Trump will protect us.
Speaking to supporters in Kissimmee, Florida, in 2023, the wannabe despot Donald Trump offered the American people what might strike some as a hyperbolic warning: “I make you this promise as your President. … I will restore peace through strength, and yes, I am the only one that will prevent World War III because we are very close to World War III.”
The Business of War — Nuclear War
The negative implications of denying, underestimating, and mismanaging the nuclear age of the 21st Century are enormous.
The military-industrial complex is perhaps the biggest industry ever developed in history. And only a small ‘inside’ group knows what it’s all about. War is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the very many. Out of war, a few people make huge fortunes.
The fact that nuclear war is likely to start via gradual escalation, perhaps combined by accident or miscalculation, means that the more people know about nuclear war, the more likely we are to avoid having one.
This article is part of my series regarding “The Business of War.” Click here to access all the stories.
For this article, let’s begin with….
The 80th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August 5, 2025, marked the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. In ceremonies, a few remaining survivors of that tragic event offered graphic accounts of “the noiseless flash,” and incinerated, melted, and obliterated families.
Unfortunately, the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki now pale in comparison to what could happen if the great world powers were to unleash their full nuclear arsenals today.
We’re Closer Than Ever to Armageddon
I grew up during the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) and the Cold War (1945–1991). I remember Defense Secretary McNamara under President Kennedy saying that the only reason we avoided nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis was luck.
With the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union — the two dominant nuclear powers in the 1980s — the certainty of world destruction seemed to make the use of atomic weapons unthinkable.
Fast Forward to 2025
Ironically, the biggest challenge 34 years after the end of the Cold War in 1991 has once again become conflicts between nation-states.
We are not just talking about loose nukes triggered by terrorists, but also the dangers from the large existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons by world superpowers. And we are at risk of unintended nuclear war by accident.
Nine countries currently possess nuclear weapons: the U.S., Russia, the U.K., China, France, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. And each of these countries is engaged in efforts to “modernize” their nuclear arsenals and preserve these weapons for decades to come — unless, of course, they are used earlier.
Today, we must understand that the world is already at war. Including the wars involving Ukraine and Russia, and Israel and Hamas, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Conflict Tracker identifies more than 25 ongoing world conflicts, ranging from brutal civil wars in Sudan and Yemen to the tense and dangerous standoff between China and Taiwan.
War is a fact of life in our world today. Conflicts around the globe are no longer isolated. They’re layered, transnational, and increasingly difficult to end. The global security landscape is not improving — it’s fracturing.
The nuclear commitment going forward — the U.S. tops the list
Today’s nuclear arsenals — totaling approximately 12,000 weapons — feature bombs and missiles that are typically 5 to 40 times more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
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The U.S. and Russia remain firmly committed to modernizing their nuclear arsenals. Russia recently made headlines showing off hypersonic missiles, nuclear-powered torpedoes, and nuclear-powered cruise missiles.
As POTUS #45, Trump discontinued the policy of previous presidents of decreasing the number of nuclear weapons. Instead, his administration poured billions of dollars into his nuclear commitment.
With Trump’s go-ahead, the U.S. plans to spend over $1 trillion over the next 25 years replacing existing weapons and systems. This will include the deployment of new, smaller, more efficient nuclear warheads along with updated delivery systems, early warning systems, and much more.
As POTUS #45, and because of disputes with Russia in 2019, Trump withdrew from a key arms-control treaty known as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which was a Cold War-era agreement that prohibited certain types of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Both the U.S. and Russia have now pulled out of the INF.
As POTUS #47, Trump’s proposed 2026 budget will increase funding for its nuclear forces by 26% ($87 billion). The U.S. already stores atomic bombs in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Turkey. Now the U.K., too, has offered facilities. The U.S. is expanding missile bases in Poland and Romania as well. Germany will host U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles and hypersonic missiles in 2026.
As for other nuclear nation-states that are creating world instability
As reported by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the nine nuclear-armed nation-states — Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, and the U.S. — spent $100.2 billion on nuclear weapons in 2024. That’s up 11% from 2023.
Iran (currently a non-member of the ‘Nuke Club’) has been diligently continuing its nuclear program after Trump walked away in 2018 from the Iran Nuclear deal, which had been a signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, Barack Obama.
And then we have the threat of instability in South Asia, where tensions between the nuclear-armed nations of Pakistan and India remain ever-volatile. Many experts are surprised that nuclear war has not happened there yet.
There are many other ‘nuclear war’ possibilities in the world. For example, an attack by North Korea on the U.S. might successfully land a handful of nuclear missiles on major U.S. cities, with a death toll likely in the low millions. And tens of millions or hundreds of millions might die in a full-scale nuclear exchange between the U.S. and China or Russia.
Also, complicated scenarios could unfold if an adversary initially targets a U.S. ally. For example, if North Korea nuked South Korea or Japan, would the U.S. launch a nuclear strike and risk one in response? What if Iran targeted Riyadh or Jerusalem?
Psychotic Presidents
It’s important to remember that the President of the United States (POTUS) can launch a nuclear attack by his own authority without requiring the authorization of Congress, the Cabinet, the vice president, or the Joint Chiefs.
The President’s control of the U.S. nuclear arsenal is absolute. That presents the frightening prospect of a potential ‘madman’ President near the nuclear button when considering that the man-child Trump is our current POTUS #47.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin, Russia’s President, has repeatedly threatened the West with nuclear weapons during his war in Ukraine. As one example, in November 2024, Russian forces fired their new Oreshnik hypersonic, nuclear-capable intermediate-range missile at Dnipro. It travels “like a meteorite” at 10 times the speed of sound and can reach any city in Europe, Putin boasted.
More recently, and in response to Putin’s stooge Dmitry Medvedev tweeting that he would be ready to launch a nuclear strike over the war in Ukraine, Trump proclaimed, “I have ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.”
The ever-present demented state of Trump and Putin inflames our sense of living in a global shooting gallery. Neither Trump nor Putin thinks rationally, nor do they believe the other is rational. And either one might reach for the nuclear button at any moment. In addition, all this talk about nuclear threat suggests to these two despots that ‘first use’ is not taboo.
Where Is This All Headed?
For the first time since the Cold War in the 1980s, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East are being transformed into potential nuclear battlegrounds, with the difference now being that atomic bombs and missiles are viewed not just as deterrents but as offensive, war-winning weapons.
The proliferation of lower-yield, tactical warheads supposedly makes “limited” nuclear warfare possible. But once that red line is crossed, an unstoppable chain reaction may ensue.
And let us not forget that artificial intelligence (AI) systems raise the risk of accidental Armageddon. AI doesn’t have a conscience (not yet). But could large AI systems themselves come to pose nuclear threats? Even if people ultimately retain control of them, applications such as mass manipulation and mass precision targeting could threaten billions of people.
And what do you say to those who advocate for nuclear deterrence in the interest of national security? Some people, especially Trumpsters, proclaim, “We need nuclear weapons for deterrence.”
Some people, especially Trumpsters, think that those who advocate for nuclear disarmament are naive. But I would ask, “Who really is naive: those who believe we can live with nuclear weapons, or those who are insisting that we get rid of them?
Nuclear deterrence has become our worst enemy because it guarantees nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear Armageddon — forever.
