The Washington Post first reported late on Friday night that the Trump regime has been discussing the possibility of conducting our first nuclear weapons test in nearly 30 years.
The reason why is more or less a conspiracy theory.
A test would supposedly be a response to events that never happened.
The matter came up at a meeting of senior officials representing the top national security agencies May 15, following accusations from administration officials that Russia and China are conducting low-yield nuclear tests — an assertion that has not been substantiated by publicly available evidence and that both countries have denied.
A senior administration official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive nuclear discussions, said that demonstrating to Moscow and Beijing that the United States could “rapid test” could prove useful from a negotiating standpoint as Washington seeks a trilateral deal to regulate the arsenals of the biggest nuclear powers.
You know, a nuclear weapons test is not something you can hide even if you conduct it underground. Seismographs around the world would detect it. The idea that Russia and China are secretly testing nukes is so ridiculous I couldn't even write this sentence without laughing.
What's not funny, however, is the idea of Trump ordering an above-ground nuclear weapons test just because he thinks a mushroom cloud would make for a great campaign rally backdrop.
We all know that's what this is really about. It's certainly not about a "negotiating standpoint" because conducting such a test would send the world scrambling to arm themselves and close the door to any new agreements for the forseeable future.
It would also make us the ultimate hypocrites in the world while our blanket economic sanctions on Iran remain on the books.
A White House source told the Washington Post that the possibility of conducting a test is an "ongoing conversation" which could mean advisers are trying to talk Trump out of doing it.