President Donald Trump said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be strategically positioned near Russia in response to what he said were aggressive remarks by the country’s deputy chairman of its Security Council.

Washington

Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be repositioned in response to provocative statements from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The nature of the submarines—whether nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed—was not immediately clear. John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, criticized the move, calling it 'very risky business' and suggesting it demonstrates a lack of understanding of the operational role of the U.S. nuclear navy.

Bolton explained that the U.S. maintains a continuous deterrence posture with its ballistic missile submarines, which are already deployed and ready to retaliate if necessary. He argued that responding directly to Medvedev, who holds a subordinate role in the Russian government, is ill-advised and that such actions could be misinterpreted by the Kremlin. Bolton emphasized that the submarines are already in position and do not need to be moved, highlighting concerns about Trump’s grasp of nuclear strategy.

‘Very risky business’: John Bolton on Trump’s nuclear subs order

Tonight, President Trump is issuing a rare threat of nuclear escalation against Russia, saying that he's ordered two nuclear submarines to be repositioned in response to, quote, provocative statements made by Russia's former president, Dmitry Medved. He was talking about nuclear. When you talk about nuclear, we have to be prepared, and we're totally prepared. Trump first made this announcement online, saying this step was just in case Medvedev's foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that. It was not immediately clear if Trump was referring to subs with nuclear weapon capabilities or merely nuclear-powered subs. Of course, the current deputy chairman of the Russia Security Council and former president has made a reference, had made a reference on Thursday to Russia's Soviet-era system capable of launching retaliatory nuclear strikes after Trump told him to, quote, watch his words. The two have been trading verbal attacks since Monday, when Trump slashed his deadline for Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. There's been no sign that Putin is listening. However, last night, you saw Russia launching its deadliest single attack on Ukraine's capital this year, killing at least 31 people after striking an apartment block. My source tonight is John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser and ambassador. It's great to have you here because, obviously, the former president doesn't actually have the power to launch Russia's nuclear weapons here. I mean, he's, for people who don't know, he's basically the Kremlin's online troll in recent days. But I wonder if you believe that President Trump's actions were warranted here. No, I don't. I think it's very risky business for a lot of reasons. Most significantly, it seems to reveal Trump doesn't really understand how our nuclear navy works and what their plan of operation is. As for Medvedev, it's true he's a former Russian president, a former prime minister, in fact, always subordinate to Vladimir Putin. Right now, the position he holds is equivalent to deputy national security adviser in the United States. And it's just really very ill-advised to have the president responding to somebody like that, whatever they're tweeting on whatever subject. Even if somebody should respond to him, it shouldn't be the president. But more fundamentally, what Trump may not be understanding here, and which the Kremlin could be misreading, is how the ballistic missile nuclear submarines that we have operate and how they function and serve basically as our second strike capability in the event of a nuclear war. The Ohio-class submarines, the ones that carry the ballistic missiles, don't sit around in port. They're out in a complex, obviously highly classified schedule on what are called extended deterrence patrols. That is to say, a sufficient number of them are in position right now to retaliate against a Russian nuclear attack. That's why they're put out there so they don't have to go anywhere. They're already there and are hopefully undetectable so that a Russian or later a Chinese first strike can't take them out at the beginning. So to say he's going to move those kinds of submarines anywhere indicates he doesn't know how they work right now.

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