WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s announcement of nuclear testing resumption in the US "blindsided" his own administration,...
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s announcement of nuclear testing resumption in the US "blindsided" his own administration, former CIA and State Department official Larry Johnson told TASS.
"The Department of Energy, Department of War, Department of State <...> themselves are blindsided by this. This [Trump’s decision] doesn't reflect, necessarily, a policy shift [in Washington] as Donald Trump saying something, and everybody else is now trying to catch up to figure out what he actually meant," Johnson remarked. He previously served in the CIA, first in operational roles and later in analytical work. After leaving the agency in Langley, Johnson served as Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism.
In recent years, Johnson has been active as a commentator and analyst in the fields of foreign policy and national security. From his point of view, Trump "had no idea what he was talking about" and was "reacting like a teenager who is trying to pretend to be as important and influential as one of his friends." The US leader, according to Johnson, acted "without thinking it through," "without really understanding the technical details of it at all."
He answered in the negative when asked whether it is likely that Trump will resume live nuclear testing, and whether the US leader could decide to do so despite warnings from US experts and opposition from a number of US Congress members. "No, and for this reason, because by the time he goes ahead with it, he’s going to be out of office. My understanding is that’s three years away. It's going to take about three years to do it," the expert stated. Trump’s presidential term expires in January 2029.
"The reason I am somewhat hesitant to say, oh, absolutely not, is because, again, he's the one that suspended the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty [in 2019," Johnson explained. "It looks like they [US government officials - TASS] are not taking any steps to keep the New Start [the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty - TASS] alive. He [Trump - TASS] remains part of the problem," the analyst asserted.
In his view, "the reality is, arms control and dealing with upgrading nuclear weapons, et cetera, has not really been the top policy priority of any [US] administration over the last 14 years." "People with that expertise have largely retired or no longer part of [US] government [for other reasons]. Scott Ritter was an example of somebody who was involved heavily with the arms control process and inspections, and he's been out of government now for 20 years," Johnson added.
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