- - Trump to let New Start nuclear treaty with Russia expire

Francesca Chambers, USA TODAYFebruary 5, 2026 at 10:53 PM

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump plans to let a treaty that's limited how many nuclear weapons the United States and Russia can maintain expire, while his team works to negotiate a new deal.

A Minuteman III missile booster is lowered into the tube at Launch Facility during emplacement for Glory Trip-215 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, U.S., February 25, 2015.

The New START treaty was set to end on Feb. 5 after Trump opted against taking Russian President Vladimir Putin up on a voluntary one-year extension of the agreement that put caps on the number of deployable nuclear warheads and missiles.

"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," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Some experts have said in the lead-up to the expiration that allowing New Start to lapse could set off a new arms race, while others have argued that the treaty was not worth extending if it did not include verifiable inspections.

Trump has said he would like to see a new deal that includes China, which has been expanding its nuclear arsenal. He announced last October, as he was preparing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, that the U.S. would begin testing nuclear weapons for the first time in more than three decades.

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Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump to let US-Russia nuclear treaty expire

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