How Trump can earn the monument he so desperately desires 

President Trump clearly wants to be remembered as a great president. However, the great builder must know that the monuments he is erecting to himself sit on foundations of sand. His name can be removed from buildings. His marble memorials can be torn down. The physical evidence of his presidency can be erased. That may be America’s retribution if he remains the president the nation wants to forget.

Yet he has an opportunity to do something great. He could earn a hero’s place in history by leading the world back from the brink of three existential crises: the escalating threat of nuclear weapons, the growing violation of the planet’s ecological boundaries, and the potential that artificial intelligence will exceed human control. 

Defusing them would be a mission impossible, but one Trump should accept.   

The three crises have several things in common. Each is the consequence of allowing technology to advance faster than the morality, policies and political will to control them. The United States has played a role in causing them. And the key to defusing them involves collaboration with China. 

Nuclear weapons: The U.S. and Russia control nearly 86 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons. The only remaining arms-control agreement between the two nuclear superpowers expired in February. Trump has indicated willingness to reach a new agreement, but he insists that China be part of it. However, China is rapidly expanding its much smaller arsenal, and has shown little interest in joining the U.S. and Russia in setting numerical limits.  

Under the 1970 Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, nuclear-armed countries have........

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