Donald Trump Tells Pentagon to ‘Immediately’ Start Testing Nuclear Weapons

President Donald Trump has given the directive to begin testing nuclear weapons in the United States for the first time in over 30 years.

The order from the president to the U.S. military came just hours before his meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, Oct. 29. Trump shared the news in a post on Truth Social.

“The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country. This was accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons, during my First Term in office,” Trump wrote in his post.

He continued, “Because of the tremendous destructive power, I HATED to do it, but had no choice! Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years. 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 the testing process will “begin immediately.”

The United States ceased testing nuclear weapons in 1992, while Russia stopped in 1990 and China tested its final nuclear weapon in 1996.

The three countries declared a voluntary moratorium when the Cold War ended, according to NPR, which reported that the U.S. has since been using “scientific experiments and supercomputer simulations” to test the efficacy of its nuclear weapons.

Shortly after the president’s announcement, Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky issued a warning about Trump’s revival of weapons testing. Slutsky, who is chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, said in a Telegram post that the tests would trigger a “chain response” and spark “chaos,” Newsweek reported.  

The Kremlin also responded, saying that while Russia had not recently conducted nuclear weapons testing, it would reconsider its pause if the U.S. were to break the testing moratorium, according to Newsweek. While Russia has recently successfully tested a nuclear-powered drone and a nuclear-capable missile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such trials do not count as nuclear tests, a point he hoped had been clarified to President Trump.

Russia is following a voluntary moratorium on testing under “equal and parity conditions,” Slutsky said. While the U.S. never ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), Slutsky said the country still should abide by it.

In China’s reaction to Trump’s announcement, its Foreign Ministry encouraged the U.S. to follow the testing moratorium. Newsweek reported that Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun “also called on the U.S. to take concrete actions to safeguard global strategic stability.”

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The CTBT was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996, but is not legally binding because eight nuclear-capable states listed in the treaty must ratify it; among them are the U.S., China, Egypt, Iran and Israel — which have not ratified the treaty, but have signed it — and India, Pakistan and North Korea, none of which have signed the treaty.

North Korea last tested a nuclear weapon in 2017.