Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
A file photo of a U.S. LGM-30G Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile in a silo about 60 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota.
Archive of Universal History | Universal Images Group | Getty Images
US President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing “on an equal footing”, citing testing programs by other countries.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, Trump said the decision “has to do with others,” without naming specific countries.
“They all seem to be nuclear tests. We have more nuclear weapons than anyone else. We don’t do tests… But since others are doing tests, I think it’s appropriate that we do as well,” he said, adding that details of the planned tests would be announced later.
Before his meeting with Xi, Trump wrote A social truth that “because of the testing programs of other countries, I have instructed the War Department to begin testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis. This process will begin immediately.”
It was not immediately clear what Trump meant by “equal footing.” The Ministry of Defense was renamed the Ministry of War on 5 September under an executive orderalthough Congress has not approved the change.
The announcement followed announcements that Russia has made successfully tested nuclear-powered Poseidon supertorpedo on Wednesday.
“For the first time, we managed not only to launch it with a carrier engine from a carrier submarine, but also to launch the nuclear power unit on which this device spent some time,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin. quoted as saying.
Moscow also tested its new Burevestnik nuclear cruise missile on October 21 and conducted nuclear missile launch exercises a day later.
The US has not conducted a live test of nuclear weapons since 1992, when then-President George H.W. Bush imposed unilateral testing moratorium.
In 1996, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was signed by then-President Bill Clinton.
Trump also claimed in his Truth Social post that the US has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, adding that Russia and China will equalize their stockpiles of nuclear weapons within five years, a claim contradicted by independent data.
According to estimates of Arms Control Associationon International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and on Federation of American ScientistsRussia has the most nuclear weapons in the world.
Russia is estimated to have 5,459 nuclear weapons in 2025, compared to 5,177 for the US and 600 for China, according to the Federation of American Scientists. The nonprofit organization was founded in 1945 by atomic scientists after World War II to advocate for international oversight of nuclear energy.
