President Donald Trump on Wednesday night raised questions about a decades-old U.S. ban on testing its nuclear weapons by detonating them, a prospect experts say is dangerous to the population and would open a door for adversaries to test and hone their most powerful weapons.
Minutes before a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump posted on his social media platform that he was “directing the Department of War to begin testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis.”
“That process will begin immediately,” the president added.
Interpreting the President on Social Media
The White House would not clarify whether Trump was referring to explosive testing of nuclear weapons – something only North Korea has undertaken in the 21st century – or to testing platforms that could deliver a nuclear weapon, which is routine.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose for a photo before their US-CHIA summit at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, October 30, 2025.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Vice President J.D. Vance, asked Thursday what Trump meant, said the president’s social media post “speaks for itself.”
“We have a large arsenal…Sometimes you have to test it to make sure it functions and works properly,” Vance said.
Vice Adm. Richard Correll, in his confirmation hearing Thursday as commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the combat deployment of nuclear weapons, emphasized the president’s reference to testing on an “equal basis.”
“I don’t assume the president’s words meant nuclear testing,” Correll said, pointing to the president’s reference to testing on an “equal basis.”
“Neither China nor Russia has conducted a nuclear explosion test. So I don’t read anything into it, nor do I read anything out of it,” he said, implying that the US would not seek to thaw a 30-year freeze on nuclear test explosions.
However, when pressed by ABC News about the post, the White House would only say it was “potentially” Trump was referring to tests that fit within current standards.
On March 23, 1955, an underground atomic test is shown at the Nevada Test Site near Yucca Flats, Nev.
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission via AP, FILE
Consensus on nuclear control ‘at a turning point’
The US last tested a nuclear weapon in 1992 before President George HW Bush signed a nuclear test ban – including underground. The US and Russia are both signatories to the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which banned all test explosions.
But the treaty is not in force because it has not gathered enough countries to ratify it, including the US and Russia. Yet rejection of nuclear explosives has become the norm.
Experts say the US has been working as part of a global consensus to combat the proliferation of nuclear weapons – a key pillar of which is the commitment not to detonate nuclear weapons as part of testing.
“The nonproliferation regime is at an inflection point,” said Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association.
“If state testing occurs at this point, it could open the door for other countries to see a path forward to developing a viable nuclear deterrent, especially if a state conducts that testing [has] signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty,” she said.
That “would undermine the long-standing norm against nuclear testing, to which every state except North Korea is bound,” Davenport said.
A 24-hour TV broadcast of Yonhapnews at Yongsan Train Station in Seoul showing a news broadcast about a test launch of the new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) “Hwasong-19” at a secret location in North Korea. North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on November 1, 2024 that it had successfully fired the new Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) the day before, with leader Kim Jong Un saying the country had achieved an “irreversible” status in developing nuclear weapons delivery vehicles.
SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
Who wins if nuclear tests return?
It was not immediately clear what prompted Trump to signal a policy change on nuclear testing. He recently called Russian military tests with potentially nuclear weapons “inappropriate,” pointing out loudly the location of U.S. nuclear capabilities near Russia.
In response to Trump’s latest comment, the Kremlin said its exercises over the past week were routine and warned that Russia would follow suit if the US resumed testing.
“That is in no way a nuclear test,” said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has increasingly brandished the nuclear weapon since Russia invaded Ukraine.
“If anyone deviates from the moratorium, Russia will act accordingly,” Peskov said.
If the U.S. “opens the door to nuclear testing,” Davenport said Russia and China would have “greater ability to test and refine those warhead designs.”
“The computing power of the US National Labs really gives the United States an advantage here, but resuming nuclear testing could allow states like Russia and China to overtake the United States,” she added.
Senator Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said on Capitol Hill Thursday that he would take the president’s comments “at face value” as “nuclear explosives testing.”
Reed noted that the U.S. conducted more than a thousand nuclear tests during the Cold War era—hundreds more than Russia, eclipsing China’s total of 47 tests. Those decades of testing have produced “advanced modeling codes” that will allow the U.S. to maintain its capabilities and test them via supercomputers.
The global moratorium on testing “provided a technical advantage for the United States,” Davenport said. “And that’s one of the reasons why it would be foolish for Trump to reopen the door to nuclear testing, because it would allow other states to catch up.”
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