Daniel Davis Deep Dive Merch: Etsy store https://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielDavisDeepDive?ref=seller-platform-mcnav The discussion centers on President Trump’s reaction to Russia’s recent successful test of a nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile—reportedly with unlimited range and capable of evading any defense system. Despite Trump’s confident demeanor, there’s significant confusion within the U.S. over its strategic goals and the implications of such Russian advances. Guest Scott Horton, author of Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and director of the Libertarian Institute, argues that this escalation traces back to U.S. decisions decades earlier—especially the 2001 withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty under George W. Bush. That move, Horton explains, reignited a new arms race, as the U.S. began deploying missile defense systems in Romania and Poland, which Russia perceived as a direct threat. The ABM Treaty, first signed under Nixon, limited missile defense sites to prevent an arms spiral and maintain the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD). By scrapping it, Bush enabled the U.S. to surround Russia and China with anti-missile systems, eroding strategic stability. Horton notes that this also effectively ended the START II treaty, which would have banned multi-warhead ICBMs (MIRVs), further intensifying nuclear risk. Later, Trump’s withdrawal from the INF Treaty deepened Russian suspicions, as the U.S. could now legally deploy nuclear-armed Tomahawk cruise missiles from launchers in Eastern Europe that were originally described as “defensive.” Russia viewed this as a possible first-strike threat, not a defense against Iran as the U.S. claimed. In short, Horton frames Russia’s new nuclear missile developments—including the nuclear-powered Burevestnik—as a direct consequence of decades of U.S. treaty withdrawals and expansion of missile systems near Russia’s borders. He argues these U.S. actions dismantled the arms-control framework that once kept nuclear tensions stable, pushing the world toward renewed Cold War–style brinkmanship.