Donald Trump’s doomsday clock

A year ago, I wrote about how the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists kept its Doomsday Clock at the perilous 90 seconds from midnight for the second year in a row. Created in 1947, this clock was meant to symbolize how close the world is to disaster. Now, the Bulletin announced on Tuesday that it moved the clock to 89 seconds from midnight, bringing us even closer to the brink.
Frankly, the chaos that Donald Trump and his sycophants have unleashed in just the past week or so is more than enough to explain the further shift to midnight. Months before the election, I wrote that the clockโs proximity to midnight โshould serve as yet another reminder of why steady, smart leadership must continue into next year and beyond.โ Indeed, without that type of leadership, there is no reason to expect any change in the trajectory, though of course we must try.
That is the desperate plea the Bulletin makes during this dark hour. Identifying the United States, China, and Russia as having the power to destroy humanity, the Bulletin argues that they also โhave the prime responsibility to pull the world back from the brink, and they can do so if their leaders seriously commence good-faith discussions about the global threats outlined here.โ
The Bulletinโs main areas of concern include the disturbing rise of dysfunctional technologies, continuous biological threats, more evidence of a changed climate, and a heightened nuclear risk. Although the Bulletin points out that โ[t]here were no calamitous new developments last year with respect to nuclear weapons,โ the problem is โthis is hardly good newsโ because long-term concerns only grew in 2024.
โBlindly continuing on the current path is a form of madness,โ the Bulletin warns. โThe world depends on immediate action.โ The stakes are higher than ever, and bold yet careful action is whatโs needed. If, a year from now, the Doomsday Clock moves even a second or two in the right direction, it will be a needed glimmer of hopeโone that almost certainly comes not because of the Trump administration, but in spite of it.

Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month