GYEONGJU, South Korea — President Donald Trump on Thursday morning said he directed the Pentagon to begin testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Russia and China, abruptly inserting nuclear issues into the discussion just before meeting his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, for a high-stakes trade summit here.
The announcement signaled a reversal of decades of United States nuclear policy that could have far-reaching consequences for relations with U.S. adversaries, though Trump’s post on Truth Social included very few details about what the tests would entail. The last nuclear weapon test in the United States was held in 1992, before President George H.W. Bush implemented a moratorium on such exercises at the conclusion of the Cold War.
White House officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment about what the United States’ nuclear weapons testing would involve. Trump said he would direct the “Department of War” to conduct the tests, but the Department of Energy is responsible for nuclear testing. Trump did not respond to reporters’ questions about the directive during the start of his meeting with Xi.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that the process would begin immediately and was in response to other countries’ testing programs. Russia on Wednesday announced that it had successfully tested a nuclear-powered super torpedo called Poseidon, and praised the successful test of a nuclear-powered cruise missile just three days before. So far, however, Putin has abstained from testing a nuclear weapon or carrying out a nuclear detonation.
The first Trump administration discussed conducting a nuclear test explosion in 2020, and a senior administration official told The Washington Post at the time that demonstrating the United States could conduct a test would be a useful negotiating tool with Beijing and Moscow.
But such an escalation could undermine Trump’s recent moves to cement himself as the “peace president,” as he campaigns globally for the Nobel Peace Prize, and to soothe tensions with the United States’ main geopolitical rival.
