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President Donald Trump raised serious concerns Wednesday night by suggesting the United States may resume Nuclear Testing — a practice banned for more than 30 years. Minutes before a scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump posted on his social media platform. He announced he has “instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis.”

“That process will begin immediately,” he added.

Trump Raises the Prospect of Renewed Nuclear Testing

The White House declined to clarify whether Trump referred to explosive testing — which only North Korea has conducted this century — or to routine tests of nuclear delivery platforms. The ambiguity has left global leaders, scientists, and arms control experts questioning whether the U.S. might be preparing to shatter a long-standing global norm that helped curb nuclear proliferation.

Read more at The New York Times: Trump and Xi Ease Off the Trade War, but New Nuclear Threat Brings a Chill.

Mixed Signals from Washington

When asked about Trump’s statement, Vice President J.D. Vance said the president’s message “speaks for itself,” adding, “We have a big arsenal … sometimes you've got to test it to make sure it’s functioning properly.”

At a Senate confirmation hearing, Vice Adm. Richard Correll, the nominee to lead U.S. Strategic Command, urged restraint in interpreting Trump’s words. “Neither China nor Russia has conducted a nuclear explosive test,” Correll said. “I wouldn’t presume the president’s words meant nuclear testing.”

However, the White House, when pressed by ABC News, would only say it was “potentially” the case that Trump referred to testing that fits within “current norms.”

More information on nuclear 

A 30-Year Freeze on Explosive Nuclear Testing

The United States last conducted a nuclear test explosion in 1992, before President George H.W. Bush signed a moratorium banning further detonations. Four years later, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was introduced to permanently outlaw all nuclear explosions.

Although both the U.S. and Russia signed the CTBT, neither has ratified it, preventing the treaty from taking full effect. Nonetheless, a de facto global moratorium has persisted — one broken only by North Korea.

“The nonproliferation regime is at an inflection point,” said Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association. “If any state tests at this point, it could open the door for other countries to develop their own nuclear deterrents.”

She warned, “That would undercut the long-held norm against nuclear testing that has bound every state except North Korea.”

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Russia Warns of Retaliation

The Kremlin reacted swiftly to Trump’s comments. Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, called recent Russian military exercises “routine” but issued a stark warning. “If someone deviates from the moratorium, Russia will act accordingly,” Peskov said.

Experts say that a U.S. return to nuclear testing could trigger an arms race. Davenport cautioned that renewed tests would “allow states like Russia and China to catch up with the United States,” eroding the advantage that U.S. scientists maintain through sophisticated computer simulations and modeling at U.S. National Laboratories.

For more background on U.S. nuclear testing history, see the Department of Energy’s Nevada archive: DOE_NV-209_Rev16.pdf.

Lawmakers Sound the Alarm

Sen. Jack Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he interprets Trump’s comments “at face value” to mean “nuclear explosive testing.” Reed noted that during the Cold War, the U.S. conducted over 1,000 nuclear tests — far surpassing both Russia and China.

Experts are warning that resuming nuclear testing could destabilize decades of global nonproliferation efforts.

Those tests helped the U.S. build “sophisticated modeling codes,” Reed said, allowing scientists to safely verify the reliability of the nuclear arsenal without detonations.

“The global moratorium on testing locked in a technical advantage for the United States,” Davenport said. “Reopening the door to nuclear testing would be foolish — it could let others catch up.”

A Dangerous Shift in Global Stability

While Trump has not elaborated on his remarks, the potential for renewed nuclear testing represents a profound shift in U.S. nuclear policy and a direct challenge to decades of arms control agreements.

Experts warn that even hinting at resuming explosive tests could unravel the fragile global consensus that has kept nuclear weapons use in check since the end of the Cold War. As Davenport concluded, “The moment one state tests, the entire nonproliferation regime could begin to unravel.”