President Donald Trump has often thrived on vagueness, demonstrating a deep unwillingness to be pinned down on specifics and forgo maximum leeway in future actions.
But one area where precision matters, a lot, is when Presidents talk about their plans for America's nuclear weapons. And this weekend, the President and his energy secretary, who oversees the development and maintenance of the nuclear stockpile, contradicted each other on the critical question of whether the US is about to break the three-decade taboo on explosive testing of nuclear weapons.
In short, Trump has doubled down on the concept that he has ordered a resumption of explosive nuclear testing — which the US has refrained from for 33 years — to match what he contends were secret nuclear underground detonations, presumably by Russia, China, and other nuclear-armed states.
"They test way underground where people don't know exactly what's happening with the test," Trump said in an interview that was recorded on Friday with CBS' 60 Minutes. "You feel a little bit of a vibration. They test, and we don't test. We have to test." Trump pointed to Russia, China and North Korea and others as conducting unspecified tests.
On Sunday, Chris Wright, Trump's energy secretary, appeared to contradict Trump when he indicated the US has no intention of conducting new explosive tests, and would simply continue its regular testing of nuclear components and systems to ensure they are working properly.
"These will be nonnuclear explosions," Wright said on The Sunday Briefing on Fox News. "These are just developing sophisticated systems so that our replacement nuclear weapons are even better than the ones they were before."
Matthew Bunn, a Harvard professor focusing on nuclear weapons, said it was "distressing when the guy with his finger on the button" did not appear to be in lock step with his top federal officials when it came to speaking publicly about nuclear weapons.
"It makes everyone afraid when the guy in charge of America's nuclear weapons doesn't appear to know what he's talking about," Bunn said.
The mixed messages have amounted to an extraordinary situation in which the President cannot get on the same page with one of his top cabinet officials on how the US government is handling the most destructive weapons in the world.
New York Times News Service