Nuclear Weapons: Under Trump, the global ‘Doomsday Clock’ creeps closer to midnight

Public vigilance is needed to keep the threat of annihilation in check

by Cindy Ann Cole, published in the print edition of Cascadia Daily News

Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, p. A4 continued on p. A6

Cindy Cole is a mother, grandmother and a citizen peace and labor activist. She lives in Bellingham and has been working on the issue of nuclear weapons and the military for more than 20 years.

89 seconds to midnight!  The prestigious Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists sets the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight than ever before, accentuating the danger of possible nuclear war and climate catastrophe.  With wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East and nuclear powers such as Russia, the United States and Israel deeply involved in these wars the prospect of a nuclear weapons conflagration loom large.

As Donald Trump takes office, there is even more concern by scientists. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation plan, written by 20 former advisors and office holders of the Trump Administration outlines a plan for increasing the current nuclear arsenal and for the possible testing of nuclear weapons. Christopher Miller, an advisor to Trump declares that the United States needs to be in a superior nuclear position to deter any opposing nuclear threat.  He also has suggested that the United States restore nuclear weapon’s testing.

The US is currently in a nuclear weapons modernization and build-up to the tune of 1.7 trillion dollars over the next 30 years. In tax year 2023 the US expenditure on nuclear weapons was $94,485,000,000. The US is not transparent with many military expenditures so the cost may be much more.

The Heritage 2025 plan would increase the costs and the buildup. Over the past few years, the US posture has caused the development of more weapons and delivery systems in China, Russia and North Korea. As concerning as this is, the plan to begin live testing of new nuclear weapons is disastrous.

It’s a local issue, also.

Here in Washington State, we are host to refugees from the Marshall Islands where the US atomic testing from 1946-1958 at Bikini Atoll made most of the islands uninhabitable. That population is still having ramifications from nuclear testing years later with cancers and birth defects in their children and grandchildren.

The Spokane tribe suffers from the ramifications of waste from uranium mining and the Hanford superfund site in southeastern Washington has cost billions of dollars to protect the Columbia River and the people there from being contaminated with radiation from nuclear waste.  Speaker Mike Johnson of the US House of Representatives has refused to bring the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) up for a renewal vote because of the cost!

Washington State hosts the 3rd largest deployment of nuclear weapons in the world at the Bangor Submarine Base 20 miles as the crow flies from Seattle. This makes Washington a prime target in any nuclear exchange. Even a small fraction of the current number of 12,119 nuclear weapons over a large city could trigger a nuclear winter resulting in global famine affecting billions of people and causing extensive environmental damage. Boeing Airplane Company is a large manufacturer of nuclear weapons and delivery systems and is perhaps also a prime target.

More weapons does not equal deterrence

Trump’s 2025 playbook uses the myth that having large numbers of powerful nuclear weapons and first strike delivery systems will deter their use. There are huge risks in thinking this way. It assumes that rationality exists on the part of decision makers.  However, decisions can be made from misperceptions, anger, insanity, revenge, and pride, etc.

Once nuclear weapons are possessed, there are no guarantees that they won’t be used. Over the last 79 years we have had the Cuban Missile Crisis and several false alarms, accidents, loss of weapons, theft, flocks of geese and faulty computer codes.  It’s just plain dangerous to have these weapons around.

Several of our local officials have signed on to Back from the Brink. Bellingham City Council members Michael Lilliquist and Jace Cotton as well as State Senator Sharon Shewmake have signed on to a group of over 80 cities and municipalities that are urging the Federal Government to negotiate with other nuclear possessing states to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons

U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen early in the Biden administration signed on to a congressional letter urging the administration to reduce our reliance on nuclear weapons and to retire new weapons added by Donald Trump. However, it was not to be and the military budget for 2025 is $850 billion with $100 billion for the nuclear arsenal.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock shows how precarious and unstable our situation is.  Money used for weapons is taken from all of us, up to $2 billion from Washington State alone. Redirecting our tax dollars to mitigate our other existential threat, Climate Change, and toward the needs of the people is necessary.

Cindy Cole, Bellingham, WANW

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Don’t miss the upcoming conference REBUILDING THE ANTI-NUCLEAR WEAPONS MOVEMENT TOGETHER, April 11-12. 2025. See https://www.wanwcoalition.org/2025-conference-1