Officer-turned-billionaire businessman in Trump's 'nuclear weapons tsar'...controversy over quality

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has selected former U.S. Representative Brandon Williams, a former Navy officer-turned-billionaire businessman, as the head of nuclear weapons management.

According to the U.S. daily New York Times on the 17th, Trump said on his social media Truth Social, "I am happy to announce former Congressman Williams as the next deputy nuclear security secretary and director of the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) under the Department of Energy."

"He is a successful businessman and reservist who served as a nuclear submarine and strategic missile officer in the U.S. Navy, graduating from Pepperdine University and the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School," he said.

NNSA is an agency responsible for the overall design, production, and maintenance of U.S. nuclear weapons, safety, security, and reliability.

Nuclear power facilities provided to the U.S. Navy, international nuclear security guarantees, and proliferation prevention are also included in the NNSA's business area.

Nevada's base, which was used for underground nuclear tests during the Cold War, is also managed by the NNSA, which is larger than the state of Rhode Island.

The NYT noted that Williams' appointment goes against the precedent of those with expertise in national security, nuclear weapons operations, or military science related to nuclear technology serving as NNSA directors.

In fact, the first NNSA director was a former deputy director of the CIA, a former Air Force general, and the soon-to-be-retired director is a mechanical engineer who served as director of the Sandia National Laboratory, one of the three major nuclear weapons labs in the United States.

According to a profile of former congressman Williams, he majored in humanities at Pepperdine University and earned an MBA from Wharton School.

He also joined the U.S. Navy in 1991 and served on the nuclear submarine USS Georgia until he was discharged as a lieutenant in 1996.

He is known to become a billionaire by setting up a software company that modernizes manufacturers' factories and protects them from cyberattacks.

Dr. Terry Wallace, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States, said Williams was "a person I've never met" and "very inexperienced."

However, the profile released to Congress introduced Williams, a former congressman, successfully completed training to convert nuclear engineers while serving in the Navy, saying, "I overcame the reverse and drew a steep learning curve."

The program is known as the most difficult process in the U.S. military.

The New York Times pointed out that there is a possibility of a close investigation into the qualities of the new "nuclear weapons tsar" given that Trump's aides are proposing to resume nuclear tests.

In 2018, during Trump's first term, the U.S. Department of Defense said, "The U.S. should be ready to resume nuclear tests."Former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton
also called for the resumption of nuclear tests at the time, but it has not become a reality.