US President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the Pentagon to immediately resume testing of American nuclear weapons the first such move in more than three decades just minutes before a high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea.
The surprise announcement came on Trump’s social media platform Truth Social as he flew aboard Marine One to the summit venue. “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately,” he wrote, reports Reuters.
He added, “Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within five years,” without clarifying whether he was referring to nuclear-explosive testing which falls under the National Nuclear Security Administration or missile flight tests. Trump declined to elaborate further when questioned by reporters.
The directive marks a dramatic shift in US nuclear policy and follows growing concerns in Washington over China’s rapid nuclear expansion and Russia’s recent testing of advanced nuclear-capable systems.
Russia announced this week that it had successfully tested both a nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable cruise missile and a Poseidon nuclear-powered torpedo weapons designed to deliver devastating strikes and trigger radioactive ocean waves along enemy coastlines.
Trump, speaking earlier aboard Air Force One, criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he “should be ending the war in Ukraine instead of testing missiles.”
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), China has more than doubled its nuclear arsenal from about 300 warheads in 2020 to 600 in 2025 and could exceed 1,000 by 2030. The think tank noted that Beijing’s latest Victory Day parade showcased five nuclear delivery systems capable of striking the continental United States.
In contrast, the United States last conducted a nuclear test in 1992. Such tests, which provide data on the performance and reliability of nuclear weapons, are widely viewed as demonstrations of strategic power.
Trump had earlier expressed interest in pursuing new nuclear arms control talks involving both Russia and China. However, Beijing has rejected participating in trilateral disarmament discussions, calling the idea “unreasonable and unrealistic” given its comparatively smaller stockpile.
The United States ushered in the nuclear age in July 1945 with the detonation of a 20-kiloton atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico, followed weeks later by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — attacks that ended World War II but began an era of nuclear brinkmanship that now appears to be reawakening.
