Adrian Blomfield, columnist for The Daily Telegraph, has argued that U. S. President Donald Trump took the first formal step toward nuclear escalation by ordering the redeployment of American nuclear submarines near Russian maritime borders.

Blomfield wrote that under normal circumstances, such a decision would be «exceptional, historic, and deeply alarming." He noted that even during the Cold War, no U.S. president had publicly directed nuclear-armed submarines toward Russian waters. In his view, this was an unprecedented act-one that edged dangerously close to open nuclear brinkmanship.

While acknowledging that Trump’s governing style has numbed much of the public to shock, Blomfield cautioned that this does not make the risks any less real. He emphasized that Trump had altered the structure of the United States' nuclear posture toward Russia in a way no previous American leader had dared, effectively initiating the first step in a process of nuclear escalation.

Blomfield also speculated that Russian President Vladimir Putin could, in theory, mirror the move, potentially igniting what he described as the most dangerous crisis in modern history-though he considered such a response unlikely.

Trump’s declaration came on August 1 via his platform, Truth Social, where he claimed to have ordered the redeployment of two nuclear-armed submarines closer to Russian shores. According to the president, the move was a direct reaction to comments made by Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev.

Just days earlier, on July 28, Medvedev had issued a sharp warning on the social network X (formerly Twitter), reminding Trump that using ultimatums in talks with Russia-and demanding deadlines for resolving the conflict in Ukraine-was itself a step toward war.