Start Testing Nuclear Weapons Immediately – Trump Declares, Gives Order To Pentagon – SIXT-MEDIA LANE
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had instructed the Defense Department to “immediately” start testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with other nations.
“Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,” Trump said on Truth Social shortly before his highly anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea. “That process will begin immediately.”
The last confirmed nuclear test by the United States was in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush announced a moratorium on underground nuclear testing. The United States has the ability to resume tests at a federal site in Nevada.
China’s last known testing of a nuclear weapon was in 1996, and Russia’s recent weapons testing did not detonate a nuclear weapon, just the delivery technology.
Trump, who has lately sharpened his rhetoric about U.S. military capabilities, said the decision to resume testing was about reaching parity with Moscow and Beijing.
“The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country,” he said in his social media post, later adding that “Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years.”
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons lists Russia as having the most confirmed nuclear weapons — 5,449 to the United States’ 5,277. Together, the United States and Russia possess around 90% of all nuclear weapons.
Russia announced a test of a new long-range nuclear powered underwater weapon Wednesday and recently tested a nuclear capable missile.
NBC News has reached out to the White House for clarification on Trump’s post — if he means nuclear capable or nuclear weapons.
Trump offered no answer when reporters asked about changing his nuclear testing plans.
During his first term, Trump sought a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, NBC News reported at the time.
Earlier this week — in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s testing a nuclear-powered cruise missile with “unlimited range,” which he referred to as “a unique weapon that no other country possess” — Trump said he did not think it was appropriate for Putin to be testing such weapons.
“I don’t think it’s an appropriate thing for Putin. For Putin to be saying either, by the way, you ought to get the war ended. A war that should have taken one week is now in its, soon, fourth year, that’s what you ought to do instead of testing missiles,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday.
Trump earlier this year called denuclearization “a big aim,” telling reporters over the summer that “Russia’s willing to do it, and I think China is going to be willing to do it, too.”
“We can’t let nuclear weapons proliferate. We have to stop nuclear weapons,” he added.
Beijing, at the time, rejected Trump’s appeal for China to join the United States and Russia in reducing stockpiles, saying it was “neither reasonable nor realistic.”
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated this year that the United States has 3,700 nuclear warheads and Russia 4,309. China has at least 600, an increase of about 100 each year since 2023.
Trump’s social media post Wednesday sparked swift condemnation from some Democrats on Capitol Hill, including members of Nevada’s congressional delegation.
“This directly contradicts the commitments I secured from Trump nominees — and the opinion of Administration officials who certify our nuclear stockpile — who’ve told me explosive nuclear testing would not happen & is unnecessary. I’ll fight to stop this,” Sen. Jacky Rosen wrote on X.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said she would be “introducing legislation to put a stop to this.”
The Nevada Legislature passed a resolution in May calling on the federal government to maintain its moratorium on testing nuclear weapons
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