President Donald Trump is defending allowing the nation’s last nuclear treaty with Russia to expire by declaring he’s already “stopped” nuclear wars between several countries. Experts and advocates warn that the treaty was the last barrier against a nuclear arms race.

“As of today, for the first time in over half a century, the US and Russia don’t have a legally binding arms control treaty in place anymore,” observed Wall Street Journal national security reporter Robbie Gramer.

“Without the New START treaty,” NBC News reported on Thursday, “which caps the number of deployed nuclear warheads at 1,550 on each side, there will be no limits on the American and Russian arsenals.”

“Not only are there no discussions between Washington and Moscow on what comes next,” NBC added, “but also officials from both countries are left guessing about the other side’s capabilities and intentions, increasing the possibility of misunderstandings and an unrestricted nuclear arms race not seen since the 1960s, experts and officials warn.”

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Former President Barack Obama warned that allowing the treaty to expire “would pointlessly wipe out decades of diplomacy, and could spark another arms race that makes the world less safe.”

Former Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, called it a “tragic day for global security,” and noted that “the world is now a more dangerous place.”

Richard Stengel, a former Under Secretary of State during the Obama administration, warned: “Sure, the START treaty has its flaws, but it’s the last restraint on a new nuclear arms race.”

“Letting it die doesn’t do anyone any good,” he continued. “The US president’s bellicosity and cavalier attitude to nuclear weapons and NATO has caused many new nations to contemplate building their own nuclear arsenal. That’s also bad news. The math is pretty simple: the more weapons, the more danger.”

President Donald Trump, however, appeared unperturbed.

“The United States is the most powerful Country in the World,” he declared. “I completely rebuilt its Military in my First Term, including new and many refurbished nuclear weapons. I also added Space Force and now, continue to rebuild our Military at levels never seen before. We are even adding Battleships, which are 100 times more powerful than the ones that roamed the Seas during World War II.”

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“I have stopped Nuclear Wars from breaking out across the World between Pakistan and India, Iran and Israel, and Russia and Ukraine,” he claimed.

Trump then appeared to suggest that Russia has been violating the treaty, arguing that therefore it made sense to allow it to expire. And he suggested that a new nuclear treaty should be crafted — although he did not say when.

“Rather than extend ‘NEW START’ (A badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future.”

For the first time in more than half a century, there are no limits on the world’s two largest atomic arsenals. The sole remaining nuclear arms treaty in the world, known as New START, is expiring between the U.S. and Russia, and arms control advocates fear a new arms race.… pic.twitter.com/P2eqsTi9WC

— PBS News (@NewsHour) February 4, 2026

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered a unique fix for sharply falling consumer confidence, which is now at the lowest level in twelve years — even worse than during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Thursday, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE), told the Treasury chief, “despite all this progress, we’re seeing consumer confidence is not really rebounding the way that the economy seems to be.”

“In your opinion,” Ricketts then asked Bessent, “what more can we in the Senate be doing with regard to consumer confidence and making, you know, obviously — we had 40-year-high inflation under the Biden administration — but what more can we be doing in the Senate to be able to help out with confidence in consumers?”

Bessent replied immediately.

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“Other than telling consumers to turn off MSNBC,” he said, referring to the rebranded MS NOW.

“A large part of it is a survey problem, where Democrats vote very low, Republicans are more realistic, and then we end up, what we’re seeing,” he added, suggesting that the problem is not the economy — despite what experts see as persistent inflation and a “hiring recession,” but how people who watch or read a single news outlet perceive the economy.

.@SenatorRicketts: “What more could we be doing in the Senate…to be able to help out with confidence…of consumers”@SecScottBessent: “Other than telling consumers to turn off MSNBC…it is a survey problem, where Democrats vote very low and Republicans are more realistic.” pic.twitter.com/HgwM2YULv5

— CSPAN (@cspan) February 5, 2026

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Indiana Republicans are pushing controversial “good citizenship” legislation that would require educators to teach students they should have children only after getting married. Critics warn that bringing these lessons into classrooms could stigmatize students from single-parent or unmarried households.

The legislation, Senate Bill 88, also promotes high school completion, full-time employment, and marriage as parts of being a good citizen, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

The bill’s author, Indiana Republican State Senator Gary Byrne, “described the proposed additions as an expansion of the ‘Success Sequence,’ a three-pronged theory designed to help young adults avoid poverty and enter the middle class.”

“The Success Sequence outlines three simple steps that researchers have consistently shown helps individuals to avoid poverty,” Byrne said.

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Byrne cited research from the Brookings Institution and from a conservative think tank, the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), which describes such instruction as “a proven formula to help young adults succeed in America.”

“The data is striking,” Byrne said. “More than half the people who complete none of these three steps live in poverty. Among those who complete all three, the numbers dropped to just 3% that would live in poverty.”

NBC News reported that “not everyone shares excitement over the success sequence — which may come across as innocuous advice, but detractors say is built upon dubious data, overlooks racial disparities and shames students who are raised in single-parent households.”

A Brookings Institution paper reported that “While the analysis cannot prove that following these norms causes income to increase, we find that the likelihood of being poor when following all three rules is extremely low.” It also stated that “causation might easily run in the reverse direction.”

Democrats challenged Byrne’s legislation.

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Speaking to the proposed in-school instruction, Indiana Democratic Senate Minority Leader Shelli Yoder told the Indiana Capital Chronicle, “Waiting until marriage to begin having children — and there sits children, who knows the makeup of their homes — and I just don’t know how that creates a positive, encouraging or confidence-building environment for students in that classroom.”

“I just don’t think it’s necessary to begin instilling areas of judgment with students who are trying to do their very best in school and going home to their families that they love,” she added.

Leader Yoder told The Indiana Citizen that the legislation “stigmatizes how students view their own identity within their families.”

“She described the language as ‘fraught with shame’ and questioned whether it belongs in civics courses, adding that it sends a ‘complicated message’ about who qualifies as a good citizen.”

“The student sitting there is going, ‘Huh, my parents aren’t good citizens,’” Yoder told NBC News. “Questioning good citizenship because I was a surprise, or my mom got pregnant and had me before getting married or never got married.”

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