Donald Trump announces that he has ordered the Pentagon to resume nuclear tests: “Immediately”

Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the US military to immediately resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in 33 years, the announcement came minutes before the US president met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, reports Reuters.

Trump made the surprise announcement on his Truth Social network while aboard the Marine One helicopter en route to Busan, South Korea, for a trade negotiation session with Xi.

He said he had instructed the Pentagon to test the US nuclear arsenal “on equal terms” with other nuclear powers.

Nuclear tests to begin 'immediately'

“Given the testing programs of other countries, I have directed the War Department to begin testing our nuclear weapons on an equal footing. This process will begin immediately,” Trump wrote.

“Russia is in second place, and China is a distant third, but it will catch up within 5 years,” the US president said.

He did not elaborate on the subject and did not respond to a reporter's shouted question about his post. It is not clear whether Trump was referring to nuclear explosion tests, which are supposed to be conducted by the National Nuclear Security Administration, or to the flight testing of nuclear-capable missiles.

Trump's decision to resume nuclear weapons tests follows a rapid expansion of China's nuclear stockpile in recent years and came shortly after Russia announced what it called a successful test of a nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable cruise missile as well as a nuclear-powered torpedo.

Trump addressed Russia's moves aboard Air Force One earlier this week, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin should be working to end the war in Ukraine “instead of testing missiles.”

China has doubled its nuclear arsenal in five years

Beijing has doubled its arsenal to about 600 nuclear weapons in 2025 from 300 in 2020, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

CSIS said US 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 all reach the continental United States, CSIS said.

The Arms Control Association says the United States has a stockpile of 5,225 nuclear warheads and Russia has 5,580.

Putin said on Wednesday that Russia had successfully tested the Poseidon nuclear super-torpedo, which military analysts say is capable of devastating coastal regions by setting off large-scale radioactive ocean waves. It also announced on Sunday that Russia had tested its new cruise missile that has both nuclear propulsion and the ability to carry a nuclear warhead, the Burevestnik, “a truly unique system.”

As Trump toughened both his rhetoric and his stance toward Russia, Putin publicly demonstrated his nuclear power by testing a new Burevestnik cruise missile on October 21 and conducting nuclear launch exercises on October 22.

Critics after the announcement: “Trump is misinformed and outdated”

Reactions to Trump's testing announcement came quickly. Dina Titus, a Democrat in the House of Representatives, wrote on X: “I will propose a law to end this situation.”

Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association, estimated that the United States would need at least 36 months to resume underground nuclear testing at the former Nevada test site.

“Trump is misinformed and out-of-date. The United States has no technical, military or political reason to resume explosive nuclear testing for the first time since 1992,” Kimball said on X.

Kimball said Trump's announcement could “trigger a chain reaction of nuclear tests by US adversaries and destroy the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

A show of US strategic strength?

In addition to providing technical data, a US test would be seen by Russia and China as a deliberate assertion of US strategic power. Putin has repeatedly said that Russia will conduct tests if the US does.

In August, Trump said he had discussed nuclear arms control with Putin and wanted China to get involved.

Beijing responded that it was “unreasonable and unrealistic” to ask the country to join nuclear disarmament negotiations with the two countries, as its arsenal is much smaller.

Trump first signaled his intention to pursue nuclear arms control efforts in February, saying he wanted to begin talks with both Putin and Xi about imposing limits on their arsenals.

Major powers have not conducted nuclear tests since the 1990s

The United States last tested a nuclear weapon in 1992.

Most major nuclear powers except North Korea ceased 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 US's last test in 1992 and China's in 1996.

The United States opened the nuclear age in July 1945 with the test of a 20-kiloton atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico, and then dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to end World War II.