Non-proliferation has been dead for at least a decade. (Great article I can’t find right now in <i>Le Monde Diplo</i>.)<p>The screaming nail the coffin was our reaction to Ukraine, where Russia’s nukes dominated the conversation, versus Iran, where their non-existent nukes did not. Ukraine was proven stupid trading its nukes for empty promises. The world saw and learned.
Nuclear terrorism hasn't been a trope in mass media for about 10 years, and 20 years since Graham Allison's book <i>Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe.</i> This book convinced Warren Buffett that it was a serious problem. And, that's what's so stupid about ending aid unilaterally without understanding the totality of implications of doing so. When a mushroom cloud sprouts over Los Angeles, it won't be the plot device of 24 anymore and nothing will be able to change what coulda, shoulda, or woulda been possible after-the-fact.
Title plays with the word aid from the now dismantled United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which is a channel to stem projects in favor to the US worldwide. Maybe Trump didn't understand the value of it or is principally against such methods.
From the track record of U.S. AID the world is a better place without it.