Trump orders nuclear weapons testing to begin immediately on equal basisuclear weapons testing to begin immediately on equal basis

President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States would resume nuclear weapons testing, which the United States has not done since 1992, left experts, lawmakers and military personnel scratching their heads Thursday.

Just before his important meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the President announced that he had instructed the Pentagon to begin testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Russia and China, and that the process of testing these weapons would begin immediately.

“It all looks like a nuclear test,” Trump later told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We don’t do testing; we stopped doing that years ago. But it’s appropriate for us to do it while others are testing.”

It’s unclear exactly what Trump meant, as no country has conducted a known nuclear test against North Korea since 2017. The last known tests for China and Russia date back to the 1990s, when Russia was still the Soviet Union.

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The White House did not comment to Fox News Digital. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

But those who have reviewed the president’s comments say Trump may be talking about accelerating testing of nuclear-powered weapons systems or conducting secret, low-yield nuclear weapons tests.

Andrea Stricker, deputy director of the nuclear nonproliferation and biodefense program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, called the announcement a “power move” by Trump ahead of Xi’s meeting and said one option the president could consider is allowing testing of low-yield nuclear explosives, but that would go above the zero-yield threshold set out in the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which bans all nuclear explosions.

Although approval by the United States and many other countries was required for the agreement to enter into force, the agreement established no nuclear testing as a worldwide norm, and the United States, Russia, and China have maintained a moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing ever since.

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The United States has detailed in multiple reports that it suspects Russia and China may have been conducting low-yield type tests for years, an expert says. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

But Stricker said the United States has detailed in multiple reports that it suspects Russia and China may have been conducting low-yield type tests for years despite the moratorium outlined in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. For example, now-retired Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley Jr., while serving as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in 2019 that the United States believed Russia was not complying with its nuclear testing moratorium “in a manner consistent with a zero-yield standard.”

Ultimately, Stricker said, Trump’s comments show he will match the actions of his close rivals.

“The president’s statement implies reciprocity: he will increase testing as they do it, making Moscow and Beijing responsible for reining in their efforts,” Stricker said in an email to Fox News Digital on Thursday. he said. “Trump may also be trying to engage both countries in arms control talks with New START, the remainder of the nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia, which expires in February 2026, and China may be rejecting such talks.”

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Meanwhile, Navy Vice Admiral Richard Correll, whom Trump nominated to head U.S. Strategic Command, told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing Thursday that the president may be discussing testing nuclear-powered weapons delivery systems such as ballistic and cruise missiles, although he had no knowledge of Trump’s thinking.

Correll said neither China nor Russia had conducted a nuclear test to his knowledge, and that he “didn’t read anything about it or outside of it” when lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee asked about the president’s statement. But Correll said he would be ready to implement the president’s directive if approved.

U.S. Strategic Command is a combatant command that oversees the U.S. military’s nuclear deterrent.

Russia recently announced that it has successfully tested its new nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile. Pictured is Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

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Matthew Kroenig, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, told Fox News Digital that Russia’s latest missile test also “gives credence” to the possibility that Trump intends to test these nuclear-powered weapons delivery systems.

Russia announced on Sunday that it had successfully tested the new nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, which NATO named “Skyfall”. The announcement came after the Trump administration imposed strict sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies.

Kroenig, who previously worked on nuclear and defense policy at the Pentagon and helped prepare the 2018 US Nuclear Posture Review, also said Trump’s statement could signal the end of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters Thursday that it is extremely important for the president to respond appropriately to actors like nuclear-armed Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that it is extremely important for the president to respond appropriately to nuclear-armed actors like Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)

“When a madman with nuclear weapons like Putin starts swinging his sword, it’s important for the president to respond,” Risch said. “And he responded reasonably.”

Democrats had a different approach. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump “got it wrong” on nuclear weapons policy and said resuming nuclear weapons testing could upend decades of nuclear nonproliferation efforts.

“Breaking the explosives testing moratorium that the United States, Russia and China have maintained since the 1990s would be strategically reckless and would inevitably prompt Moscow and Beijing to continue their own testing programs,” Reed said in a statement Thursday. he said. “Furthermore, American explosive tests would provide Pakistan, India, and North Korea with justification to expand their own testing regimes, destabilizing the already fragile global nonproliferation architecture at precisely the moment when we cannot afford it.

“The United States will gain little from such tests, and we will sacrifice decades of hard-won progress in nonproliferation,” Reed said.

Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters Thursday that the president will continue to work on nuclear proliferation, but tests will be conducted to make sure the weapons are operating at optimum capacity.

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“Making sure that this nuclear arsenal that we have is actually functioning properly is an important part of American national security,” Vance said. “And that’s part of the testing regime. To be clear, we know it’s working properly, but you’ve got to keep it under control over time. And the president wants to make sure we do that with his nation.”

Chad Pergram of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.