Trump Directs Pentagon to Resume Nuclear Weapons Testing, Raising Global Concerns
Former President Donald Trump announced an order directing the Pentagon to begin testing nuclear weapons, a move that breaks with three decades of U.S. policy and has sparked immediate criticism from arms control advocates. the declaration came shortly before his arrival in South Korea for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.When pressed by journalists, Trump declined to elaborate on the order.
The decision arrives amidst escalating tensions with Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently confirmed the triumphant testing of the Poseidon, a nuclear-powered supertorpedo designed to create devastating radioactive tsunamis. This test occurred as relations between Trump and Putin strained following the cancellation of a planned bilateral summit in Budapest, due to RussiaS unwillingness to negotiate peace in Ukraine. Russia also conducted tests of a new Burevestnik cruise missile on October 21st, but has so far refrained from nuclear detonations.
Currently, the United States possesses 3,748 nuclear warheads, according to 2023 data from the Department of energy. Russia leads in quantity with 4,309 warheads as of the beginning of 2025, as reported by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. China is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal,doubling its warhead count from 300 in 2020 to 600 in 2025,with projections from the Department of Defense estimating it will exceed 1,000 by 2030. The U.S. is currently second in nuclear warhead count, “very distant, although it will equal it in the next five years.”
The United States last conducted a nuclear weapons test on September 23,1992,at the Nevada National security Site,marking the end of the Cold War. Sence then, the country has maintained a voluntary moratorium on underground explosions.Such tests are typically conducted to verify the functionality of new prototypes or to assess the effectiveness of weapons in long-term storage,but can also be interpreted as a presentation of military strength.
the three-decade moratorium has been a cornerstone of nuclear nonproliferation efforts. Trump’s order threatens to undermine these efforts, prompting swift condemnation from arms control experts. Daryl Kimball, Executive Director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, criticized the move on social media, stating, “Trump is uninformed. The United States has no political, technical or military reasons to resume exclusive nuclear testing for the first time since 1992.”
