by WorldTribune Staff, February 5, 2026 Real World News
New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, expired at midnight at Feb. 4. What next?
President Donald Trump said he prefers a new “modernized Treaty” that includes communist China and its rapidly strategic arsenal to extending the old New START.
The Trump Administration is pushing for China to become involved in any discussions about future nuclear arms treaties. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that any talks to impose limits on nuclear weapons should include the CCP-dominated country, noting China’s “vast and rapidly growing stockpile.”
China aims to have at least 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, according to a Pentagon report released in December.
New START was signed in April 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russia’s Dmitri Medvedev.
Columnist Jeff Kuhner wrote in 2011 on the impact of President Obama neutering both the GOP and U.S. strategic clout:
“He has achieved his top social policy objective: repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ which prohibited gays from openly serving in the military. It is a cultural watershed. The homosexual movement has toppled society’s last great conservative institution — the armed forces. He has managed to get the New START treaty passed, which essentially prevents America from developing a viable missile defense system. And all of this was done with GOP collusion.”
Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social:
Rather than extend “NEW START” (A badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
Mark Schneider, a senior analyst at the National Institute for Public Policy who has worked on nuclear arms control negotiations since 1979, called New START the “worst arms control treaty negotiated after Ronald Reagan,” saying the treaty placed an undue burden on the U.S. to maintain lower levels of nuclear weapons while allowing Russia and China to go unchecked.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin, sensing weakness in the Biden-Harris White House, suspended Moscow’s participation in the treaty in 2023. He said Russia would need the U.S. to cut off support for Ukraine and bring France and Britain into arms control talks to resume the regime of nuclear checks and balances.
New START is ending just a few months after Trump said the U.S. would resume nuclear weapons testing, stressing that such tests are warranted because Russian and Chinese nuclear stockpiles are approaching U.S. levels and other nations are involved in some degree of testing.
Russia’s nonstrategic arsenal is estimated at somewhere between 5,000 to 10,000 nuclear warheads, according to Russian sources. The available information from the U.S. government is scarce, with the intelligence community keeping a tight hold on its estimates.
2026 Contract With Our Readers
Out with old ‘New START’, in with DJT’s ‘modernized Treaty’ that includes China added by Editor Two on
View all posts by Editor Two →