Trump Fired, Then Unfired, National Nuclear Security Administration Employees. What Were Their Jobs?

Trump wants to make sure U.S. nuclear arsenal at 'top of the pack' By Steve Holland February 24, 2017.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Trump was asked about a December tweet in which he said the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capacity "until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes."

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to ensure the U.S. nuclear arsenal is at the "top of the pack," saying the United States has fallen behind in its weapons capacity. In a Reuters interview, Trump also said China could solve the national security challenge posed by North Korea "very easily if they want to," ratcheting up pressure on Beijing to exert more influence to rein in Pyongyang's increasingly bellicose actions.

Trump also expressed support for the European Union as a governing body, saying "I'm totally in favor of it," and for the first time as president expressed a preference for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but said he would be satisfied with whatever makes the two sides happy.

“Insanity and folly”: experts on Trump’s proposal to build tens of thousands of nukes “We now know why Tillerson called Trump a moron.”

AFTER ADDING TRILLIONS TO THE NATIONAL DEBT IN TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH, TRUMP WANTED TO ADD TENS OF TRILLIONS MORE..

2017: President Donald Trump asked his top national security officials to build tens of thousands of new nuclear weapons during a July 20 meeting, according to an NBC News report published on Wednesday morning. The president’s request, experts say, is simultaneously impossible and terrifying.

“The insanity and folly of this … cannot be overstated,” Kingston Reif, the director for Disarmament and Threat Reduction Policy at the Arms Control Association, tweeted in response to the report. “Increasing [the US] arsenal would constitute [a] radical departure from U.S. policy and likely lead to [a] full fledged arms race with Russia and perhaps China,” he added.

There is no strategic reason for the US to increase its nuclear arsenal by such a large amount: The current US nuclear stockpile, around 4,000 nuclear devices, is more than enough to deter attacks from any hostile power. Building 32,000 more, the precise number Trump requested, would take many years and cost trillions of dollars.

And indeed, there is no indication that such a buildup is going to happen in real life. The president’s comments appear more grounded in Trump’s almost childlike fascination with military hardware — he has repeatedly requested a military parade in his honor in Washington, despite the fact that such a parade would destroy DC’s streets — than anything else.

“I do not think it is worth even analyzing this as any kind of realistic policy proposal. It is impossible,” writes Alex Wellerstein, a historian of nuclear weapons at the Stevens Institute of Technology. “It is just a sign of his lack of understanding of the issues, and perhaps a window into his own insecurities.”

Trump denied the NBC News report in a Wednesday morning tweet. “Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a ‘tenfold’ increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal,” the president writes. “Pure fiction, made up to demean.” And, later in the day, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis denied the report as well in an official statement.

2025: Trump is putting nuclear disarmament on the agenda.

Trump is putting nuclear disarmament on the agenda, Australia must join the ban. Last week, US President Donald Trump proposed to cut the US defence budget by half and to stop producing new nuclear weapons. “We already have so many,” he said, “you could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over.”

In response to Trump’s statements, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Australia) Director, Gem Romuld, said:

“Trump’s statements to stop spending money on nuclear weapons are a welcome development, and we hope will lead to action to reduce stockpiles. They should strengthen Australia’s resolve to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), as Labor has promised to do in government, and to cease the policy of “extended nuclear deterrence” (END) once and for all.

Nine countries possess nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. In total, the global nuclear stockpile is close to 13,000 weapons. While that number is lower than it was during the Cold War—when there were roughly 60,000 weapons worldwide—it does not alter the fundamental threat to humanity these weapons represent.

THE WORM KING

We discuss brainworms, Elon’s new gig, and why it’s a really bad idea to micro-dose E. coli.

Dr Ruth Mitchell, neurosurgeon and founding member of the Australian Nobel Prize-winning group, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, joins Dr Emma Shortis to discuss the global consequences of Trump’s cabinet picks and what his election means for efforts to eradicate nuclear weapons.

Guest: Ruth Mitchell, Board Chair, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War // @drruthmitchell

Host: Emma Shortis, Director of International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis

This discussion was recorded on Thursday 21 November and things may have changed since recording.

2025: Trump Fired, Then Unfired, National Nuclear Security Administration Employees. What Were Their Jobs?

The administration asked some of the agency’s workers, who were part of last week’s massive layoffs across the federal government, to come back.

When termination letters were sent to employees across the federal government last week, the Trump administration affected an agency charged with the readiness of America’s nuclear arsenal.

The move also shined a spotlight on the agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which few Americans likely think of often, if ever, but has a monumental responsibility.

Here’s a rundown of what the obscure agency does and the potential reasons that the Trump administration had to quickly adjust some of the firings:

What is the agency’s mission?

The National Nuclear Security Administration maintains, refurbishes and keeps safe the United States’ more than 3,000 nuclear warheads. It also supervises the production of new nuclear warheads. It has a $25 billion annual budget and around 2,000 directly hired employees, who manage more than 55,000 contractors who play an integral part in warhead production and maintenance.

Congress also put the agency in charge of thwarting nuclear proliferation, researching and developing nuclear propulsion systems for submarines and directing national laboratories that provide key scientific and engineering knowledge for the U.S. nuclear weapons system.