WASHINGTON – In a move escalating tensions with russia and China,President Donald Trump has ordered teh resumption of nuclear testing in the United states,marking the first such activity in over 30 years. The decision, announced October 30, 2025, comes amid heightened global security concerns and follows provocative statements from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The order directs the positioning of “two nuclear submarines in the appropriate areas,” according to a statement released by the White House on August 1, 2025. This action followed the postponement of a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, a summit Trump cancelled citing a desire to avoid discussions “for nothing.” The united States subsequently imposed new sanctions on Russian hydrocarbons.
Trump’s decision to restart testing reverses a moratorium imposed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992. Between the first American nuclear test in July 1945 in the New Mexico desert and the moratorium, the United States conducted 1,054 nuclear tests, including the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The move follows recent Russian advancements in nuclear weaponry, including the accomplished final test of the Bourevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile of “unlimited range” and the Poseidon underwater drone, both touted by Putin as systems “no other device in the world is equal to” and “no way to intercept.”
The United States and Russia remain bound by the New Start disarmament treaty, which limits each party to 1,550 deployed strategic offensive warheads and includes a verification mechanism currently interrupted for two years.Putin proposed extending the treaty for a year in early october but did not address the resumption of arsenal inspections. The U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019.
Trump, who previously positioned himself as a “president of peace,” has reportedly adopted a harder stance toward Moscow as a summit in Alaska with Putin this summer. Following a meeting with Chinese President Xi jinping, who has become a close ally of Putin, Trump stated Washington and Beijing would “work together” on the war in Ukraine.
