Trump national security adviser calls for first nuclear weapons tests since 1992 and wants to send the 'entire' US Marine Corps to Pacific to counter the threat from China

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If Donald Trump wins reelection he should restart nuclear testing after a 30-year-pause, decouple the economy entirely from China and deploy the entire U.S. Marine Corps to the Pacific to counter the threat from Beijing.

That is the advice of his last national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, who lays out a possible blueprint for a second Trump term in a 5000-word essay.

If you want peace, prepare for war, is the theme of his message, particularly when it comes to heading off China, which has doubled the size of its nuclear stockpile since 2020.

'The United States has to maintain technical and numerical superiority to the combined Chinese and Russian nuclear stockpiles,' he writes for Foreign Affairs.

'To do so, Washington must test new nuclear weapons for reliability and safety in the real world for the first time since 1992—not just by using computer models.' 

Donald Trump's former national security adviser says he should resume U.S. nuclear testing if he returns to the White House. Robert O'Brien laid out the idea in an essay for Foreign Affairs

He also says the US should resume production of uranium-235 and plutonium-239, the raw materials for weapons, 'if China and Russia continue to refuse to engage in good-faith arms control talks.'

O'Brien says he remains in contact with his former boss and he is widely expected to return as a senior official in a new administration.

As a result, his manifesto is being passed around Washington's defense and national security establishment as a chance to glean clues about what Trump might do in a second term.

Much of its focus is on China. The word 'China' appears 37 times and 'Beijing' 12 times.

'As China seeks to undermine American economic and military strength, Washington should return the favor—just as it did during the Cold War, when it worked to weaken the Soviet economy,' he writes.

His recommendation is to completely decouple the U.S. from the Chinese economy.

And he says the U.S. military should look away from the Middle East, and focus on the Indo-Pacific region, increasing the size of its navy from fewer than 300 vessels to 355 (a target from Trump's time in office), as well as refurbishing ships to supply to the Philippines. 

'The navy should also move one of its aircraft carriers from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the Pentagon should consider deploying the entire Marine Corps to the Pacific, relieving it in particular of missions in the Middle East and North Africa,' he writes. 

O'Brien was installed as national security in 2019 and stayed at the White House until Trump left office in January 2021. He says he remains in touch with his former boss

A recent test of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile 

Xi Xinping has increased his nation's nuclear stockpile from 410 to 500 in a single year (File image) 

'U.S. bases in the Pacific often lack adequate missile defenses and fighter jet protection—a scandalous deficiency that the Defense Department should fix by quickly shifting resources from elsewhere.'

Congress should also help strengthen the armed forces of Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam by offering the kinds of support, loans and weapons transfers 'that the United States has long offered Israel.' 

For all the fire and fury, there are some notable policy absences that may reassure Trump critics.

There is no mention of withdrawing from NATO, a habitual Trump threat.

And O'Brien, who set up a consulting firm after leaving the White House, offers a hawkish stance on Ukraine and facing down Russian President Vladimir Putin, while underlining the former president's desire for a negotiated settlement.

Trump and O'Brien outside the White House at St. John's Episcopal Church in 2020, flanked by U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr and Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany

A Titan II nuclear ICMB in a silo at the Titan Missile Museum in Green Valley, Arizona

'Washington should make sure that its European allies understand that the continued American defense of Europe is contingent on Europe doing its part—including in Ukraine,' writes O'Brien. 

'If Europe wants to show that it is serious about defending Ukraine, it should admit the country to the European Union immediately, waiving the usual bureaucratic accession protocol. 

'Such a move would send a strong message to Putin that the West will not cede Ukraine to Moscow. It would also give hope to the Ukrainian people that better days lie ahead.'

The Trump campaign cautioned against interpreting the essay as a statement of official policy.

'Let us be very specific here: unless a message is coming directly from President Trump or an authorized member of his campaign team, no aspect of future presidential staffing or policy announcements should be deemed official,' said top advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, in a statement to Bloomberg News.