As I typed that headline, the imaginative part of my brain saw it in the context of a flashback in a 1950’s apocalyptic movie. You remember how those started out in the midst of all hellfire and brimstone and then when things became calm for a moment, cries of “Why!?” and “How!?” reverberated across the screen and back through time. That’s where tonight’s headline would fit in just fine, “It was late October, a few days before Halloween and a 79-year-old dementia patient issued this post on social media. The patient was the sitting president of the United States, you see,” a voiceover narrative would intone.
There is no way the U.S. can “immediately “ start testing nuclear weapons again. The infrastructure to conduct nuclear tests is either mothballed or doesn’t exist. It would take years to build up to that again. I worked at the Nevada Test Site. I know what I am talking about.
— The Train Station (@TheTrainStatio5) October 30, 2025
That is point number two. Because point number one (and I’m sure that Trump hasn’t the slightest clue about this) is that there have been massive layoffs in the NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) both earlier this year when Trump took office and also earlier this month when the government shutdown caused about 1,400 workers to be furloughed. “This has never happened before,” the NNSA said. And they’re going to be saying it again when they find out King Donald wants to start nuclear testing, jimmy pronto.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said NNSA furloughed its federal workforce on Monday after running out of funding to continue paying them. About 400 NNSA employees will continue working without pay to secure the nuclear stockpile and maintain minimum safety conditions.
“This has never happened before,” Wright said during a visit to the Nevada National Security Site in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Monday. “The NNSA, our umbrella organization, it’s been grouped together for 25 years. We’ve never furloughed workers in the NNSA. This should not happen. But this was as long as we could stretch the funding for the federal workers.”
Furloughing the workers is unprecedented and expecting them to regear up and start testing is going to be more uncharted waters still. Trump signed an executive order laying off workers in February of this year and that brought much criticism and many of them were rehired. You remember the glorious days of Elon Musk and his peach fuzzed proteges at DOGE, right? All that ill conceived budget slashing and turmoil is coming back to haunt us again.
DoE’s press office confirmed nearly 400 NNSA staff will remain working “to support the protection of property and the safety of human life.” NNSA’s Office of Secure Transportation — which transports nuclear material within the United States — remains funded through Oct. 27.
Yet on the 29th Trump decides it’s a really swell idea to “immediately” begin nuclear testing? With what, Donald? A Geiger counter and some of Junior’s nose candy? That’s what you’ll be able to “immediately” lay your hands on.
And where is Trump going to do this testing? I am assuming in Nevada (or does he want to go back to Johnston Island and some other Pacific islands testing sites?) but how he’s going to do any of that with a defunded program and furloughed staff, I fail to see. Well, maybe he should put Junior in charge. Why not? And then when some 60-foot-tall dude comes down the Strip and starts tearing the casinos up, it will all make sense.
On that note, let me leave you with a clip from The Amazing Colossal Man. Maybe he’ll be joined by The 50-Foot-Woman, although that was set in the nearby California desert. The space aliens were responsible for the 50-Foot-Woman and I’m still not sure what all happened to The Colossal Man. Radiation was fickle in those days, one jolt made you larger and another one made you small. (Go ask the Incredible Shrinking Man.) I do love what a little cow town Vegas looked like in the 50’s, though.
In all events, Donald Trump is dreaming. But there are some interesting questions along with all this:
- Is Trump’s *decision* to start testing nuclear weapons going to impact NNSA funding and staff? and;
- Will that fact affect the government shutdown?
- Does Trump intend to test the weapons in the usual manner? Or maybe he wants to drop a few on the Canadians and get back at them?
- And as always, does Trump consult with anybody before sending out these goofy policy and piffle positions into cyberspace? Or, does his staff discover his latest brainfart around the same time as the rest of us?
- And guaranteed, Mike Johnson will know nothing about this when asked.
I couldn’t resist posting this, either.
Then he’ll be able to crow “Did the earth move for yah, Melania?” If he gets to let one off, that is. In all seriousness though, is this his latest red herring, given where he’s at, at this moment in his demented bombranoum?
As I pointed out, there are logistical issues here, not the least of which is staffing and funding. Fix that, first.
As to the “why” of what he’s nattering about, that’s the far more interesting question. Is he trying to impress somebody (maybe his buddies from Qatar?) Nobody knows. I’ll be interested to see if this is a big bombshell story in the morning or meh. I sense “meh” because I think he’s just rambling nonsensically — and doesn’t even know what’s going on with the agency that does the testing, maintenance, etc.
Maybe it has something to do with him wanting to visit the Nth K dictator, in Nth K, for a sit-down lunch … who knows? Somebody does, but transparency, logic and straight talk may not be factored in, perhaps.
Or maybe it has something to do with him watching the preview for an upcoming movie, thinking it’s real (like he did with the vids of the 2020 BLM riots in Portland) and that he’d better act. This sort of insanity is not going to end well. In the meantime, this article about the current state of the NNSA reveals just how vulnerable we are to bad actors in the world who would be happy to take advantage of the pathetic state of our government. Rump has left us wide open to our enemies. I mean the enemies outside of this administration, of course.
It’s quite weird seeing the party dedicated to dismantling the working parts of government, just so that they can say ,’Government Doesn’t Work’ , then committing the bit they’ve made to not work, DO something to make the party look ‘strong’ or ‘powerful’.
The double-think is intense.
The best case scenario would be for Trump to re-up this agency to full operating power, simply because it’s not an agency that you want to be in a screwed up state. No government agency should wither from neglect, but if one of them has to, please let’s not make it the agency in charge of nuclear bombs and radioactive materials, all that.
I’m wondering if this will affect the shutdown. The shutdown just can’t go on forever and ever. Now Trump’s thrown a new monkey wrench into the works.
Well put, Ursula.
What does “Thank you for your attention” mean in a tweet? What does it say about the author? That’s what got my attention
We have a President we’ve watched devolve before our eyes for some years now. When you think of this believing he’s regressed to being four or five years old explains it: What’s left of his mind was at that unformed level thinkng: “I wanna see nook-yoo-lure bomb go bigly boom and make bigly orange mushroom cloud that look like giant size version of my pee-pee”
I guess this means Drumpf is giving up any chance of earning a Nobel Peace Prize since the US signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban (though it hasn’t ratified it). It also shows his total hypocrisy on the notion of nuclear weapons since he was so gung-ho against Iran’s even developing a *peaceful* nuclear program (I’m not going to contest Iran’s claims since Drumpf lies as easily–perhaps more so–he breathes; and considering the history of our nuclear program–developing a weapon before giving any consideration for peaceful use–I’m willing to give Iran the benefit of the doubt, especially as Israel DEFINITELY has a nuclear program with weapons but they absolutely refuse to allow unfettered, unsupervised and completely random IAEA inspections).
Well… Hurricane season is upon us.