US President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the US military to immediately resume nuclear weapons testing after a 33-year gap, minutes before starting a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump made the surprise announcement on Truth Social while aboard his Marine One helicopter flying to meet Xi for a trade negotiation session in Busan, South Korea. He said he was instructing the Pentagon to test the US nuclear arsenal on an “equal basis” with other nuclear powers.
“Due to other countries’ testing programs, I have directed the War Department to begin testing our nuclear weapons on a level playing field. That process will begin immediately,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
“Russia is second and China a distant third, but in five years they will be tied.”
The move comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Moscow had successfully tested a nuclear-capable underwater drone, defying warnings from Washington.
A senior Russian lawmaker said Trump’s decision would herald a new era of unpredictability and open confrontation, state news agency. ESTUARY reported.
China’s Foreign Ministry called on the United States to fulfill its commitment to impose a moratorium on nuclear testing and uphold global strategic balance and stability.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump was referring to tests of nuclear explosives, which would be carried out by the National Nuclear Security Administration, or flight tests of nuclear-capable missiles.
No nuclear power other than North Korea has conducted explosive tests in more than 25 years.
Nuclear test sites to be determined later
Later, on his way back to Washington, Trump said testing was necessary to ensure the United States was on par with its rival nuclear powers.
“Given that others are testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do it too,” Trump said aboard Air Force One, adding that nuclear test sites would be determined later.
Asked if the world was entering a riskier phase around nuclear weapons, Trump dismissed the threat and said American actions were “well secured” before adding that he would welcome denuclearization.
“I would like to see denuclearization because we have many and the second from Russia and the third from China and China will catch up in four or five years,” he said.
“In fact, we are talking to Russia about that and China would get on board with that if we do something.”
China has doubled its nuclear arsenal in the last five years
Trump’s decision to restart nuclear weapons testing comes after China’s rapid expansion of its nuclear arsenal in recent years.
It also comes just after Russia announced a “successful” test of a nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable cruise missile, as well as a nuclear-powered torpedo, which military analysts say is capable of devastating coastal regions by triggering vast radioactive waves in the ocean.
Trump addressed Russian moves on his way to Asia earlier this week, telling reporters that Putin should work to end the war in Ukraine “instead of testing missiles.”
Beijing has more than doubled the size of its arsenal to about 600 nuclear weapons in 2025 from 300 weapons in 2020, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank.
He said U.S. military officials estimate China will have more than 1,000 nuclear weapons by 2030. A Victory Day parade in September revealed five nuclear capabilities that can reach the continental United States, CSIS said.
The Washington-based Arms Control Association (ACA) says the United States has an arsenal of 5,225 nuclear warheads and Russia has 5,580.
While Trump has toughened both his rhetoric and his stance on Russia, Putin has publicly flexed his nuclear muscles with the test of a new Burevestnik cruise missile on October 21 and nuclear launch exercises on October 22.
Negative reactions
The reaction to Trump’s announcement about the tests was immediate.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nevada, said on X: “I will introduce legislation to end this.”
ACA Director Daryl Kimball said it would take the United States at least 36 months to resume nuclear testing contained underground at the former test site in Nevada.
“Trump is misinformed and out of touch. The United States has no technical, military or political reason to resume testing nuclear explosives for the first time since 1992,” Kimball said on X.
Trump’s announcement could “trigger a chain reaction of nuclear testing by American adversaries and blow up the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
In addition to providing technical data, a US test in Russia and China would be seen as a deliberate assertion of Washington’s strategic power.
Putin has repeatedly said Russia will conduct tests if the United States does.
In August, Trump said he had discussed nuclear arms control with Putin and wanted China involved.
Beijing responded by saying it was “unreasonable and unrealistic” to ask the country to join nuclear disarmament negotiations with the two countries since its arsenal was much smaller.
Trump had first outlined his intention to pursue nuclear arms control efforts in February, saying he wanted to start talks with both Putin and Xi about imposing limits on their arsenals.
Most major nuclear powers except North Korea stopped explosive nuclear tests in the 1990s. North Korea conducted its last nuclear test in 2017. Russia’s last confirmed test was in 1990, followed by the United States’ last test in 1992 and China’s in 1996.
The United States ushered in the nuclear age in July 1945 with the testing of a 20-kiloton atomic bomb in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and then dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to force Japan to surrender in World War II.
