How Trump Can Walk Us Back From The Brink Of Nuclear War

Americans rang in the new year with an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack on the streets of one of our iconic cities, spreading fear about the possibility — and, given our porous border, the unfortunate likelihood — of terrorist sleeper cells lying in wait around the country. When Donald J. Trump was in office a few short years ago, it was the terrorists who lived in fear.

From Qasem Soleimani to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to the entire ISIS caliphate, every terrorist on Earth knew that at any moment Trump could bring their reign of terror to a violent end. Of all President Joe Biden’s failures, allowing fear to shift from America’s enemies to the American people themselves may be the most disgraceful of all.

As Trump prepares to take office in a few weeks, his first challenge will be to reestablish the credible deterrence that kept bad actors in their box during his first term. Only this time, the stakes are even higher. Because whether most Americans realize it or not, we are closer to nuclear war today than we have been at any point since the Cuban Missile Crisis, or at least since 1983, when a Soviet early-warning system malfunctioned and falsely alerted their Air Defence Forces of an impending U.S. nuclear strike. 

If that statement sounds hyperbolic, take a moment to survey the mess Biden is leaving behind for Trump to clean up.

In Eastern Europe, the Russia-Ukraine war rages on. Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened the use of nuclear weapons numerous times and even authorized field exercises to train his troops to use tactical nukes against Ukrainian or NATO forces.

In the Middle East, the Biden administration has acknowledged that Iran’s nuclear breakout time is down to a matter of days. Of all the mayhem the Iranian regime has spread in recent years, from its various proxies invading Israel and attacking U.S. warships to the regime itself launching hundreds of ballistic missiles toward Israeli cities, none of it compares to what Iran’s supreme leader could do with the bomb. And their foreign minister openly stated just last week that “2025 will be an important year regarding Iran’s nuclear issue.”

In Asia, Taiwan has often been called “the most dangerous place on Earth” because of the Chinese Communist Party’s desire to absorb the self-governing island — by force, if necessary — and the United States’ long-standing desire to preserve the status quo. In one public wargame simulation, after a series of escalations, the team estimating China’s approach detonated a nuclear warhead high above the Earth’s surface to signal the lengths to which they were willing to go to win.

Nearby North Korea is the only nation to test nuclear weapons in the 21st century. In 2017, outgoing President Barack Obama told Trump in their only meeting that North Korea’s nuclear program posed the biggest national security challenge he would face. Eight years later, North Korea’s stockpile is growing, and its recent missile tests have suggested technical improvements that could bolster its ability to strike the U.S. mainland.

Most Americans my age haven’t wrestled with the specter of nuclear annihilation outside the safe confines of a movie theater while watching one of Hollywood’s familiar doomsday blockbusters. I had never fully considered it until visiting one of the U.S. government’s nuclear bunkers while working in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

It’s a blessing that for decades most Americans have not had to experience the fear and uncertainty of war anywhere near our shores, much less the possibility of nuclear annihilation. On the other hand, our comfortable existence has contributed to the hubris and complacency of many American leaders. Good times create weak men, as they say.

For the past four years, Joe Biden has been a hapless victim of world events, rather than a shaper of global affairs. That weakness has brought us dangerously close to nuclear war. Fortunately, President Trump is clear-eyed about the stakes and has shown uncanny instincts for navigating the complex world of geopolitics. He has a natural feel for how power is wielded on the world stage. And he’s shown the courage, unpredictability, and restraint it takes to establish credible deterrence without unnecessary escalations.

Trump doesn’t receive the credit he deserves for being a peacemaker, from the Abraham Accords, to his deft handling of opening a dialogue with North Korea’s enigmatic leader, to being the only recent president to keep Putin from invading another country, to perhaps the most important achievement of his first term: not sending American troops into any new conflicts.

Trump the peacemaker is needed now more than ever. America’s enemies know the dynamic changes on Jan. 20 when he walks back into the Oval Office and the president of the United States once again embodies the true strength of the American people. For the sake of us all, that day can’t come soon enough.

Cliff Sims served as special assistant to President Trump, 2017-2018, and deputy director of national intelligence for strategy and communications, 2020-2021.