Trump says U.S. will immediately 'start testing' nuclear weapons. Here's what to know.

[Eugene]

Earlier DU thread: Trump orders Pentagon to begin testing nuclear weapons 'immediately'

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Source: Yahoo! News

Trump says U.S. will immediately 'start testing' nuclear weapons. Here's what to know.

The president says other countries like Russia and China "seem to all be doing testing" — but no country aside from North Korea has conducted a nuclear weapons test since the 1990s.

Dylan Stableford, Reporter
Updated Thu, October 30, 2025 at 4:58 PM EDT
4 min read

In what would be a major shift in a decades-old American policy against global nuclear proliferation, President Trump says he has directed the Pentagon to “start testing” U.S. nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with other countries, including China and Russia.

“Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social late Wednesday. “That process will begin immediately.”

It was not immediately clear what type of testing programs Trump was referring to in the announcement, which was made shortly before meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea.

Nations with nuclear stockpiles, including the U.S., regularly conduct tests of their nuclear weapons delivery systems, but nearly all ceased testing nuclear weapons 30 years ago.

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Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/article/trump-says-us-will-immediately-start-testing-nuclear-weapons-heres-what-to-know-201722155.html

[JBTaurus83]

1. In his first term

He expressed an interest in using nukes. I surely hope this nut isn’t allowed to use them on Venezuela or any other country.

[Fiendish Thingy]

2. Well if the order is to test "on an equal basis"

And the other countries aren’t testing, then I guess the US won’t be either.

Poor Donnie, he won’t get to see the big bomb go “Boom!”

[johnnyfins]

3. An alarming thing that I saw on another

Post, is that Russia tested an underwater drone, that would carry a nuke(s) and simulate a tsunami on coastal areas.

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!?!!?!?!

[johnnyfins]

4. On second thought. Scratch that panic on my

Part. The russians already have subs off our coasts that can vaporize our major cities in 5 minutes.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Too many white cans for me tonite.

[pat_k]

5. Surprise, surprise! "Trump Is Very Confused About Nuclear Weapons" --Tom Nichols

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/10/trump-nuclear/684758/?gift=CiksPDoBurvFhUHnw_O61idqICRJDdS2p-Ax0gkD2BI&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

In any case, resuming nuclear testing is a terrible idea, not only because it would undermine America’s long-standing commitment to restraining a global arms race, but because detonating warheads to see if they actually work hasn’t been necessary in a very long time. Nuclear tests don’t make much sense for U.S. national security, but they’re a great way to raise international tensions. During the Cold War, the superpowers sometimes engaged in nuclear tests as a way of signaling nerve and resolve. Unfortunately, these tests served mostly to put both East and West on edge, pollute parts of the United States and the former Soviet Union, and make a lot of people sick.

Trump may be stuck in this sort of Cold War mentality, trying to show his toughness by resuming testing, especially because he seems to take it personally when Russia engages in occasional nuclear swaggering. But Trump is not alone on this issue. Some nuclear hawks will claim that the U.S. deterrent lacks credibility because none of its bombs have been detonated in decades, as if other nations are emboldened by the possibility that America is fielding weapons that won’t work. In fact, America and other nuclear states have ways of testing every component of their arsenal—and every nuclear-armed nation knows it. Nuclear stability rests on many policies, but no one is contemplating an attack on the United States based on some mad assumption that the response will be a rain of duds.