The nukes are fine — the advice is not



Despite his well-known aversion to using the "other N-word" and discussing the issues connected to nuclear deterrence and nuclear saber-rattling by America’s adversaries, the president, during his recent trip to Asia, dropped a bombshell of his own.

On October 29, President Trump posted a brief statement on Truth Social about nuclear weapons testing, which contained the following key points:

  • The United States has more nuclear weapons "than any other country."
  • During Trump's first term in office, the U.S. accomplished a "complete update and renovation" of existing U.S. nuclear weapons.
  • Because of other countries’ testing programs, the president has "instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis."
  • The process of testing our nuclear weapons “will begin immediately.”

Sadly, whoever provided the president with the background information for each of his statements is manifestly unaware of the easily ascertainable facts. The president is being extremely poorly served by his own staff.

The president appears to have been informed that the Department of War is responsible for nuclear weapons testing. It is not.

First, the Russian Federation has more nuclear weapons than any other nation. Its stockpile of nuclear weapons available to the Russian military is about 5,200, while its overall stockpile is about 5,600. The numbers for the U.S. are about 3,700 and 4,400, respectively. This information is readily available in public sources such as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Yearbook or the annual assessments published by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Second, during the president’s first term, progress was made on the Strategic Modernization Program initiated in 2010. Still, no new platforms (submarine-launched ballistic missiles, bombers, or land-based missiles) were deployed between 2017 and 2021. Instead, we rely today on aging systems that are decades old.

Importantly, a small number of modified, low-yield submarine-launched warheads were produced and placed in service, and development of new Air Force nuclear warheads began, but none were deployed.

Related: America must lead the Mars race before China claims the final frontier

Photo by NASA/Getty Images

Third, the president’s staff has a profound misunderstanding about the difference between the test of a nuclear system’s delivery vehicle (i.e., a ballistic or cruise missile) and the test of a nuclear warhead. In the days before the president’s post, Russia conducted a test of a new cruise missile and a new trans-oceanic torpedo (both of which, incidentally, are not constrained by the new START treaty). Tests of missile systems are commonly conducted by all the nuclear powers, including the United States.

Today, with the sole exception of North Korea in 2017, neither Russia nor China nor any other nuclear power has conducted a nuclear warhead test in this century. To be clear, the U.S. intelligence community has raised concerns that both Russia and China may be covertly carrying out extremely low-yield tests of experimental nuclear designs, but those do not appear to be the “tests” to which the president’s Truth Social post was referring.

Finally, the president appears to have been informed that the Department of War is responsible for nuclear weapons testing. It is not. That responsibility belongs to the Department of Energy. Based on over 30 years of neglect, that department would be unable today to conduct a nuclear weapon test in the near future. Based on estimates provided by the Department of Energy to Congress, it would take 24-36 months to do so, at a cost of several billion dollars — dollars that have not been authorized or appropriated by Congress.

When asked, on his return flight from Asia, why he had delivered this signal of U.S. strategic nuclear weapons muscle-flexing, the president said he believed that if others were testing, then we should too. Depending on the state of our own nuclear weapons (currently assessed by the military as being reliable), and if he had been properly informed on the facts that others had resumed testing of nuclear weapons, there would be something to this argument. But as things stand, the president owes it to himself and to America’s national security to improve the quality of advice he is being provided on the vital issue of nuclear deterrence and our ability to sustain it — and soon.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearDefense and made available via RealClearWire.

Cotton Presses DOJ to Investigate Code Pink's Terror, CCP Ties

Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) on Friday petitioned the Justice Department to open a federal investigation into left-wing activist group Code Pink for providing "material support to foreign terrorist organizations" and serving as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government, according to a letter shared with the Washington Free Beacon.

The post Cotton Presses DOJ to Investigate Code Pink's Terror, CCP Ties appeared first on .

Appeals Court Upholds Florida Law Restricting Chinese Communist Land Purchases

A federal appeals court upheld a Florida law on Tuesday that restricts Chinese nationals and entities affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from making land purchases in the state. In a 2-1 ruling, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the group of Chinese nationals challenging parts of the law (SB 264) lacked […]

University of Michigan's bio-smuggling scandal explodes: More Chinese scholars busted in alleged plot



More Chinese scholars from the University of Michigan have allegedly been tied to a smuggling conspiracy.

The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party announced Wednesday charges against three UM scholars, bringing the total to seven Chinese nationals connected to the alleged smuggling plot.

'It is part of a broader, coordinated campaign targeting universities across the country, driven by China's efforts to acquire American technology.'

In June, the Department of Justice charged Yunqing Jian, 33, and her boyfriend, 34-year-old Zunyong Liu, with smuggling a fungus into the United States. Officials claimed that the Fusarium graminearum could potentially be used as an agricultural terrorism weapon.

Liu allegedly claimed the reason for smuggling the pathogen was to conduct research at UM's laboratory, where Jian worked.

Chengxuan Han, another UM scholar, was also arrested in June after she allegedly mailed several packages containing "biological material related to roundworms" to UM's laboratory.

Han, 28, was sentenced in September to time served and was expected to return to China.

RELATED: University of Michigan now under fire after Chinese scholars allegedly smuggle bio-weapon

Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Three additional Chinese nationals who were working at UM were terminated after the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan filed new charges, claiming the individuals were involved with a biological material smuggling plot, according to the Select Committee's Wednesday press release.

The Detroit News reported that Xu Bai, 28, Fengfan Zhang, 27, and Zhiyong Zhang, 30, faced charges including smuggling biological material into the country and lying to federal agents.

Han allegedly sent one of the packages to Bai's apartment in Ann Arbor. A complaint reviewed by the Detroit News stated that Bai became uncooperative, refusing to speak with investigators.

Han also allegedly sent several packages to Fengfan Zhang and Zhiyong Zhang.

"When asked if he had ever received any packages from Han, Zhiyong Zhang showed multiple signs of nervous behavior, including his right eye twitching only when discussing Han, and he was unable to fully explain whether he did or did not receive any packages," a federal agent wrote.

UM reportedly fired the three scholars after they refused to cooperate with an internal investigation of the lab, operated by life sciences professor Shawn Xu.

"Professor Xu has been cooperative with the University of Michigan's investigation into the laboratory," Xu's lawyer, David Nacht, told the Detroit News. "He has not been informed by any federal official that he is a target of any investigation."

According to Nacht, the lab continues to operate, and Xu remains in good standing with UM.

"Professor Xu has lived in Michigan for decades, and he does basic biological research on worms," Nacht claimed. "Those present no hazards, nor do they have any military or obvious commercial application."

RELATED: From Wuhan to Michigan: Feds nab ANOTHER Chinese scholar in alleged bio-material smuggling plot

Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg via Getty Images

In 2019, Zhiyong Zhang allegedly sent a package to Xu that contained petri dishes with nematodes, or roundworms.

"Professor Xu's laboratory routinely receives roundworms and other biological material through the normal mail and [FedEx] and UPS from a laboratory in Minnesota that produces them," Nacht told the Detroit News.

UM's termination of the three scholars means the Chinese nationals are no longer in compliance with their visa requirements and may be subject to deportation.

"These new charges reveal an organized network of scholars engaged in illegal activity on Michigan's campus," Select Committee on China Chairman Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) stated. "It is part of a broader, coordinated campaign targeting universities across the country, driven by China's efforts to acquire American technology. University leaders should launch internal reviews to safeguard their research from China's adversarial actions. My colleagues and I appreciate the accountability we've seen from Michigan through our oversight efforts, and we will continue to use every tool we have to protect taxpayer-funded research and national security."

Blaze News contacted the Select Committee and the University of Michigan for comment.

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Without these minerals, US tech production stops. And China has 90% of them.



On October 20, 2025, in a room scrubbed clean for statecraft, the leaders of the United States and Australia announced a pact. The numbers were large, commitments of $1 billion each, a pipeline worth $8.5 billion, and another $2.2 billion in letters of interest. The language was of strategic reassurance: “securing critical minerals,” “building an allied supply chain.” They spoke of a gallium plant in Western Australia, of the Nolans project in the Northern Territory.

What was stated only in the careful argot of diplomacy was the anxiety. The pact was not a gesture of optimism. It was a $10.7 billion hedge against a future held hostage. The objects of this anxiety are the rare-earth elements. They are the “vitamins” of modern technology, a group of 17 soft, silvery metals that, while not strictly rare, are rarely found in concentrations that make extraction anything but a geologic and chemical trial. We seldom see or think about them, yet they are the invisible underpinning of the contemporary world.

For all our talk of the virtual, our civilization runs on materials.

We carry them in our pockets, these bits of refined earth. Neodymium and praseodymium form the tiny, powerful magnets that make an electric vehicle motor turn and a wind turbine spin. Lanthanum and cerium provide the optical clarity for a camera lens. Europium and yttrium are the phosphors that make a smartphone screen vivid. They are virtually indispensable to the high-tech, high-speed, high-definition life we have constructed for ourselves. They are also indispensable to the machinery of modern defense: the precision-guided missiles, the jet engines, the radar systems.

There is a profound cultural dislocation at work here. We have come to believe in the immateriality of our age. We speak of the “cloud,” of data, of software, as if these things were weightless, existing only as light and logic. The rare-earth scramble is a reminder that the most ethereal digital experience is tethered to the physical crust of the Earth. The cloud has a body, and that body is dug from the ground, often with toxic solvents and radioactive tailings.

China has become the center of this industry, not by accident, but by design, and by a failure of Western imagination. Decades ago, Beijing designated rare earths as “protected and strategic minerals,” while the United States, under the sway of environmental regulation and market efficiencies, allowed its own production to atrophy. The Mountain Pass mine in California, once the world’s leader, went dark in 2002, while China embraced the dirty, complex, and unprofitable “downstream” work: the refining and processing of these rare earths.

The result is a near-monopoly.

RELATED: This city bought 300 Chinese electric buses — then found out China can turn them off at will

Photo by VCG / Contributor via Getty Images

By 2025, Chinese firms controlled perhaps 90% of global rare-earth refining and 93% of magnet manufacturing. And with control comes leverage. In 2010, a territorial dispute with Japan was punctuated by China’s abrupt halt of rare-earth exports, sending global prices into panic. By 2025, the mechanism was more refined: new export rules targeting high-performance magnets, rules that, when briefly tightened, shut down supply chains for automakers. This is the power to turn off the assembly line. This is the power to ground the jets.

We have seen this story before. We call rare earths “the new oil,” and in doing so, we betray a certain exhaustion. We are merely rerunning the script of the 20th century. The 1973 oil embargo revealed the strategic peril of relying on a single region for the nonnegotiable fuel of the economy. The current scramble, the U.S.-Australia pact, the Pentagon-funded reopening of Mountain Pass, the talk of “urban mining” to reclaim neodymium from old hard drives, is the same reflex. It is the belated, frantic effort to diversify, to stockpile, to rebuild what was lost, to avoid being held hostage.

The script is older even than oil. It is the story of the Bronze Age, defined by the desperate, sprawling trade networks required to secure tin. It is the story of the Iron Age, where mastery of a new metal conferred dominance. It is, as Plato observed in the Republic, the inevitable story of the “luxurious city.” A simple society, Socrates argued, a “city of pigs,” lives in peace. But the moment a society desires more (fine furniture, luxuries, or, for us, a high-speed data plan), it must expand. It “inevitably goes to war to secure resources.”

Our digital city is the luxurious city. We crave the wind turbine and the EV motor, what we call the “green” transition, but we find it relies on the same “rare green.” We crave the vivid screen and the smart missile. And so we are compelled to scour the globe, to make pacts, to engage in resource diplomacy.

This quest is not a move into a new technological future but a return to the oldest imperatives. It is the hard reminder that for all our talk of the virtual, our civilization runs on materials. The hunt for rare earths forces us to confront the weight of our lightness, to see the shadow that our digital lives cast upon the actual, finite earth. It is, and always has been, a scramble for the dirt.

Why Mars is America’s next strategic imperative



Space is the defining strategic frontier of the 21st century. America’s space leadership depends on harnessing the private sector to create wealth and focusing the public sector on limited yet critical security and scientific objectives.

While achieving supremacy in cislunar space (the region between Earth and the moon, including the moon’s surface) must be our immediate aim, it lacks the strategic coherence to sustain American leadership over the long term.

America’s commercial space sector provides the capability and incentives to make Mars exploration both symbolically and economically rewarding.

We need long-term goals to define success and clarify tradeoffs. A manned mission to Mars can do both.

China and Russia, our near-peer competitors in space, pose serious challenges. Beijing openly pursues dominance in the Earth-moon system while accelerating toward Mars, with an ambitious sample return mission scheduled for 2028. Russia maintains formidable military capabilities in space, alongside proven Mars science achievements.

If our authoritarian rivals prevail, the world’s free nations may find their ability to access and use space significantly curtailed.

This is why the United States needs a unifying long-term vision that focuses and directs near-term commercial, military, and scientific objectives. We must also research and develop technologies for sustained living in space. A smart Mars strategy provides the needed framework, creating the technological roadmap and institutional durability to win the cislunar competition and position America for permanent space premiership.

Unleash the private sector

America’s commercial space revolution offers a compelling model for space exploration that our competitors cannot match. Most obviously, market forces have been essential for reducing launch costs. SpaceX has already demonstrated that private initiative can outpace government bureaucracies, slashing launch costs from $18,000 per kilogram during the Space Shuttle era to roughly $2,700 for today’s reusable Falcon 9.

A healthy ecosystem of suppliers, including Blue Origin, proves this success isn’t limited to one company. Cheaper launches mean increased launch cadence, which is necessary to keep space habitats provisioned. This is a prerequisite for conducting the research and tests for a journey to Mars.

China’s approach offers an instructive contrast. While Beijing tolerates private sector participation, it ultimately remains under state control. This creates strategic coherence but sacrifices the agility and inventiveness that drive transformative breakthroughs.

Chinese private space companies operate as tools of the state. Precisely because the Chinese Communist Party subordinates the information-generating and incentive-aligning features of markets, they will never enjoy the full benefits of space commerce.

Preparing for Mars missions will yield new technologies with dual-use applications. On-orbit refueling, advanced life support systems, radiation shielding, nuclear propulsion, and autonomous manufacturing capabilities developed for Mars will flow back into energy production, medical devices, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing here on Earth. It will also bolster military preparedness through advancements in basic and applied sciences. All this redounds to national security by increasing the resilience of our space assets.

These developments promise substantial job creation across skill and education levels. While Mars missions certainly demand high-tech expertise and advanced degrees, they also require skilled technicians, machinists, and assembly specialists. Going to Mars will help revitalize America’s industrial base while broadly distributing economic prosperity.

Winning the long game

While a single Mars mission could take 30 months or longer, a Mars program will likely span decades, requiring support from multiple Congresses and presidential administrations.

Avoiding the start-stop cycles that have plagued space programs — from Apollo to Constellation — requires building institutional and political durability at the outset. The foundation must be bipartisan, framing Mars leadership as a matter of national security and economic competitiveness.

Bold endeavors define our national character. Amid social and political fragmentation, undertaking something even greater than a moonshot is an opportunity for national solidarity.

Private-sector anchoring creates a robust foundation. Expanding milestone-based public-private partnerships ties American industry to Mars logistics and operations. When companies and workers nationwide have a stake in space exploration, political support becomes geographically broad and resilient across electoral cycles. Ultimately, mission success offers the best defense against annual appropriations turbulence.

The federal government’s role must remain limited and focused. Agencies should help finance foundational research and development through mission-oriented programs. Public-private agreements should be structured to maximize flexibility. Renting services rather than purchasing equipment ought to be the government’s default approach.

We must also maintain a predictable regulatory environment that protects property rights and resists bureaucratic mission creep. The government’s comparative advantage is setting long-term national objectives and coordinating industry on best practices. While public values channeled through the political process set our destination, private initiative and the profit motive serve as our most powerful engine.

Leveraging alliances

Integration with existing programs maximizes efficiency. The groundwork for future Mars missions should complement, not duplicate, the Space Force’s cislunar operations and NASA’s Artemis lunar architecture. On the international stage, the U.S. should leverage its alliances while ensuring American leadership in setting exploration norms through frameworks such as the Artemis Accords.

Building on our success with the Artemis Accords, we should actively pursue partnerships with the European Union and Japan. We should also deepen space ties with India, which may induce it to align with the free world instead of Russia and China. History has shown our allies will help shoulder the burdens of freedom if America has the courage to lead.

Strategic signaling to allies and competitors augments the framework. A stable, legislated Mars roadmap reassures international partners while deterring rivals, ensuring program continuity.

To the Red Planet!

Mars represents the next great test of American resolve. Bold endeavors define our national character. Amid social and political fragmentation, undertaking something even greater than a moonshot is an opportunity for national solidarity.

The strategic necessity is clear, the economic logic is compelling, and the technological pathway is feasible. What Mars demands now is the political will to harness America’s asymmetric advantages for humanity’s greatest adventure.

RELATED: China is on the brink of beating us back to the moon

Photo by Yang Guanyu/Xinhua via Getty Images

Getting to Mars requires the fortitude to sustain multiyear missions alongside the business discipline to achieve them cost-effectively. America’s commercial space sector provides the capability and incentives to make Mars exploration both symbolically and economically rewarding. Situating our cislunar activities within a Mars plan makes the payoffs even clearer. The moon and Mars are complements, not substitutes.

The choice before us is to either lead a free, rules-based expansion of human civilization beyond Earth or cede the final frontier to authoritarianism. If we fail, we relegate ourselves to the status of a nation in decline. We cannot accept red flags on the Red Planet.

Editor’s note: This article was published originally in the American Mind.

This city bought 300 Chinese electric buses — then found out China can turn them off at will



A city had a rude awakening when it tested its electric buses for security flaws.

Some cities have gone all-in on their dedication to renewable energy and electric public transportation, but discovering that a jurisdiction does not actually control its own public property likely was not part of the idea.

'In theory, the bus could therefore be stopped or rendered unusable.'

This turned out to be exactly the case when Ruter — the public transportation authority for Oslo, Norway — decided to run tests on its new Chinese electric buses.

Approximately 300 e-buses from Chinese company Yutong made their way to Norway earlier this year, with outlet China Buses calling it a "core breakthrough" in Chinese brands' global reach.

Yutong offers at least 15 different types of electric buses ranging from 60- to 120-passenger capacity.

As reported by Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten on Tuesday, Ruter conducted secret testing on some of its electric buses over the summer. It decided to look into one bus from a European manufacturer, as well as another from Yutong, to address cybersecurity risks.

The test results were shocking.

RELATED: Cybernetics promised a merger of human and computer. Then why do we feel so out of the loop?

Photo by Li An/Xinhua via Getty Images

Investigators discovered that the Chinese-built buses could be controlled remotely from their homeland, unlike the European vehicles.

Ruter reported that the Chinese can access software updates, diagnostics, and battery systems remotely, and, "In theory, the bus could therefore be stopped or rendered unusable by the manufacturer."

The details were described by Arild Tjomsland, who helped conduct the tests. Tjomsland is a special adviser at the University of South-Eastern Norway, according to Turkish website AA.

"The Chinese bus can be stopped, turned off, or receive updates that can destroy the technology that the bus needs to operate normally," Tjomsland reportedly said. He additionally noted that while the buses could not be steered remotely, they could still be shut down and used as leverage by bad actors.

Pravda Norway described the situation as the Chinese government essentially being able to decommission the buses at any time.

RELATED: US Army says it is not replacing 'human decision-making' with AI after general admits to using chatbot

Photo by Lyu You/Xinhua via Getty Images

Norway's transport minister praised Ruter for completing the tests and said the government would initiate a risk assessment related to countries "with which Norway does not have security policy cooperation."

Ruter's CEO, Bernt Reitan Jenssen, said the company plans on working with authorities to strengthen the cybersecurity surrounding its public infrastructure.

"We need to involve all competent authorities that deal with cybersecurity, stand together, and draw on cutting-edge expertise," Jenssen said.

As a temporary fix, Ruter revealed the buses can be disconnected from the internet by removing their SIM cards to assume "local control should the need arise."

There was no word as to whether the SIM cards are upsized for buses.

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Trump and Xi Make Progress But the Work Is Far From Over

Donald Trump just concluded the first Asia trip of his second term with one of the highest-stakes dealmaking sessions of his career. His meeting with Xi Jinping did not end in a fiery outburst or the grand bargain the Chinese desired and most Americans and their allies feared, but it was far from inconsequential. The incomplete and tentative agreement struck in Busan, South Korea, revealed the path each superpower is pursuing to dominate global affairs and why they remain at odds.

The post Trump and Xi Make Progress But the Work Is Far From Over appeared first on .

Trump scores win for American farmers as China commits to ‘massive’ soybean purchases



President Donald Trump announced that the United States has reached a deal with China to restart the purchase of soybeans after months of boycotts that hurt American farmers.

‘I was extremely honored by the fact that President Xi authorized China to begin the purchase of massive amounts of Soybeans, Sorghum, and other Farm products.’

China, the world’s largest soybean buyer, attempted to use the boycott as a powerful bargaining chip in trade negotiations. It resumed purchases ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, buying two cargoes of soybeans, Bloomberg reported.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins called the recent purchase “a great start.”

“Today’s purchase by China of multiple ships of American soybeans signals [President Trump’s] strong dealmaking and a positive step forward for our farmers,” Rollins wrote. “This purchase, coming directly ahead of the Trump-Xi talks, shows that America means business and that we will restore balance, give U.S. producers the opportunities they’ve earned, and send a message that when America leads in agriculture, the world listens.”

Trump told reporters on Thursday that China has plans to buy “tremendous amounts of soybeans and other farm products immediately.”

While the president did not specify the scale or timing of those purchases, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that China had agreed to buy 12 million metric tons of soybeans by January, according to Fox Business. China is expected to purchase at least 25 million metric tons each year over the next three years, he added.

RELATED: Our farmland is saved — China BANNED from buying US land

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Bessent estimated that Trump’s recent trip to Asia could yield $2 trillion in U.S. investments, Fox Business reported.

“Our great soybean farmers, who the Chinese used as political pawns, that’s off the table, and they should prosper in the years to come,” Bessent told the news outlet.

Trump called his meeting with Xi “truly great,” writing in a post on social media, “There is enormous respect between our two Countries, and that will only be enhanced with what just took place.”

RELATED: Trump nails China with massive tariffs after 'extraordinarily aggressive' action

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

“We agreed on many things, with others, even of high importance, being very close to resolved,” Trump continued. “I was extremely honored by the fact that President Xi authorized China to begin the purchase of massive amounts of Soybeans, Sorghum, and other Farm products.”

Trump noted that farmers will “be very happy” about this trade development and encouraged them to “immediately” purchase “more land and larger tractors” to keep up with the expected demand.

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‘Our Farmers Will Be Very Happy!’: Trump Teases ‘A Very Large Scale Transaction’ After Meeting With Xi Jinping

'I was extremely honored'