Elbridge “Bridge” Colby, a contributor to Project 2025’s over 900-page Mandate for Leadership, has been chosen as Trump’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (USDP), a position that requires Senate confirmation.

Colby will be in charge of the U.S. government’s nuclear and weapons of mass destruction policies, where his beliefs present an existential threat to humanity.

Colby said “new US defense strategy should focus on planning for and stopping an adversarial actor pursuing its best strategy available, even if it is a low-yield nuclear conflict” during the Institute for National Strategic Studies’ 2022 speaker series. A Princeton Science and Global Security simulation estimated that there would be over 90 million casualties in less than four hours if a low-yield nuclear weapon were ever used by the U.S. or Russia.

The Senate should not confirm anyone who is willing to expand nuclear use-case scenarios.

Colby is also soft on nations working to develop nuclear weapons, with Jewish Insider reporting that he believes “containing a nuclear Iran ‘is an eminently plausible and practical objective.’” His position on North Korea is similar, calling North Korean denuclearization impossible in an interview and suggesting that South Korea should be allowed to develop its own nuclear arsenal.

The future of humanity demands international leadership on denuclearization. Colby seems prepared to embrace nuclear proliferation instead, and open to initiating a cataclysmic nuclear war.

Beyond his nuclear policies, Colby is a self-described “realist,” a theory of international relations that emphasizes the competitive nature of foreign policy. For Colby, the number one competitor to the United States is China, which he believes is set to control around 60 percent of the global economy in the next few decades.

It is that belief that defines Colby’s approach to defense policy. According to political insiders, Colby is one of the main leaders of a new “China Lobby” in D.C., a group whose goal is to reorient U.S. military and diplomatic resources to confront China above all else.

Colby’s focus on China became more controversial after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. He wrote two articles for Time Magazine in 2023 – one of which was co-authored with The Heritage Foundation’s President Kevin Roberts – arguing that the United States should not take a leading role in defending Ukraine.

However, his true influence on D.C. policymakers goes beyond the public-facing magazine articles. “‘I would have a hard time identifying a single person in my time in Washington who has had a bigger impact in moving the needle of the debate’ on Ukraine and China,” A. Wess Mitchell, an assistant secretary of State in the first Trump administration, told Politico last year. 

As Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Colby will have the authority he needs to enact those priorities. The USDP leads the development of the National Defense Strategy and Defense Planning Guidance, two documents that set the U.S. military’s priorities and direct its resources.

As USDP, Colby may decide to leave our allies in Ukraine behind and inch the world closer to nuclear war.