The US president has reiterated a nuclear testing threat while calling for global denuclearization
US President Donald Trump has defended his push to resume nuclear weapon testing, boasting that America’s arsenal is powerful enough “to blow up the world 150 times” and should be maintained through active trials.
In a CBS interview aired on Sunday, Trump was asked why the US needs to test its nuclear weapons again after more than three decades of a Congress-mandated moratorium.
“Because you have to see how they work,” Trump replied. “I’m saying that we’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do. We’re the only country that doesn’t test, and I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test.”
The US last conducted a full-scale nuclear test in 1992, and resuming testing would likely take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Washington Post. Energy Secretary Chris Wright clarified on Sunday that the testing ordered by Trump would not involve actual nuclear detonations.
“These are what we call non-critical tests,” Wright told Fox News, describing them as part of a broader modernization program. “No worries about [a mushroom cloud],” he added, when asked about the possibility of atmospheric or underground tests.
Despite Trump’s claim that Russia and China are secretly conducting tests, both countries’ last confirmed nuclear tests occurred decades ago – Russia in 1990 and China in 1996.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Russia’s recent trials of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile and the Poseidon underwater drone did not involve nuclear testing. President Vladimir Putin has stated that Russia would only “act accordingly” if other nuclear powers resume testing.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry also urged the US to honor its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and to maintain the global moratorium on nuclear testing.
US Vice President J.D. Vance and several Republican lawmakers have supported Trump’s initiative, arguing that non-detonative testing is necessary to ensure the reliability of America’s aging nuclear arsenal.
“We have more nuclear weapons than any other country. And I think we should do something about denuclearization,” Trump said. “We have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the world 150 times. Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons, and China will have a lot.”
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