What Do Americans Love More than Apple Pie? Arms Control.

In a political climate that feels more divided than ever, it seems nearly impossible to agree on anything—except, as it turns out, arms control.

This week, the New START arms control treaty between the United States and Russia expired. For the first time in 50 years, we are now living without limits on the number of nuclear weapons in the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals.

But guess what? Nobody wanted this!

A YouGov poll commissioned by NTI and ReThink Media found that 91 percent of Americans support capping U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, including 89 percent of Trump voters.

To put that in perspective, only 79 percent of Americans say they like apple pie, a quintessential American delicacy.

President Trump believes limits on nuclear weapons are a good idea, too, and we launched a campaign to showcase his long-held view that nuclear weapons must be reined in.

Our “Keep a Cap on Nukes” campaign took over Washington, DC in January. NTI blanketed the city—online and off:

• Posters placed in high visibility locations, featuring Trump’s own words
• Targeted ads, including a 30-second video spot that ran on TV, social media platforms and major news sites in the DC metro area
• Social media content and influencer partnerships to expand the campaign’s reach

Together, the campaign highlighted the dangers of living in a world with no limits on nuclear weapons. Beyond generating millions of impressions, it sparked a conversation—people discussed it on neighborhood group chats, in social media threads, and in spontaneous exchanges in front of posters—showing growing public curiosity about the future of arms control.

The power to determine the next chapter of nuclear limits lies with President Trump.

Throughout his second term, the president has repeatedly made statements supporting nuclear restraint. In January 2025, he noted “There’s no reason to be building new nuclear weapons.” This past July, he told reporters, “When you take off nuclear restrictions, that’s a problem” and went further to state, “we have to stop nuclear weapons. The power is too great.”

Arms control has a legacy of strong support among those from both political parties. While New START was signed under the Obama administration, it was the Republican Party that laid the groundwork for U.S.-Russian arms control. President Ronald Reagan first initiated arms control talks with the Soviet Union in 1982 and signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. Reagan also laid out the foundation for the original START I Treaty, which President George H.W. Bush signed in 1991. President George W. Bush’s SORT treaty sailed through ratification with zero opposition votes.

Over the years, Republicans and Democrats alike have come together to call for leaders to take practical steps toward building a world without nuclear weapons—demonstrated in a landmark series of op-eds launched in 2007 by a bipartisan quartet of U.S. senior statesmen known as the “Four Horsemen.” The group: former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, and NTI co-founder and former Senator Sam Nunn.

Today, the vast majority of the American public supports limits on nuclear weapons, however overall awareness of New START’s expiration and its implications remains low.

We’re facing a looming arms race, complicated by China’s nuclear expansion, increased Russian nuclear coercion, AI, and emerging technologies. An arms race of this sort would be dangerous for both U.S. and global security, while diverting resources that could be better spent on pressing domestic priorities.

The good news: Most voters don’t want to see a new arms race, and there is broad public support to shift the tide and negotiate a new set of caps on nuclear weapons.

Help spread the word. NTI developed a social media toolkit to raise the alarm that the clock is ticking—a nod to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ 2026 Doomsday Clock, recently set to 85 seconds to midnight.

Arms control doesn’t just make sense—it’s popular and a serious political opportunity for leaders looking to put points on the board. And if we can prevent a costly, dangerous new arms race, let’s face it: everybody wins.