An Oblique Nuke Threat From Pentagon!

 

US President Donald Trump has called on US military leaders to resume testing nuclear weapons in order to keep pace with other countries such as Russia and China.

"Because of other countries' testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis," he wrote on social media just before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.

The US has more nuclear weapons than any other country, Trump said, with Russia second and China a "distant third". It has not conducted nuclear testing since 1992.

It comes just days after Trump denounced Russia for testing a nuclear-powered missile. The Kremlin says its tests were "not nuclear".
Later, on Air Force One after the two leaders' meeting, Trump said the nuclear test sites would be determined later.

"With others doing testing, I think it's appropriate that we do also," Trump said on his way back to Washington.

No country except North Korea has conducted a nuclear test explosion in this century, according to the Arms Control Association (ACA) - and even Pyongyang announced a moratorium in 2018.

It may be recalled that The US declared the Truman Doctrine of "containment" of communism in 1947, launched the Marshall Plan in 1948 to assist Western Europe's economic recovery, and founded the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) military alliance in 1949.

Trump's announcement did not make it clear whether he was referring to testing a nuclear explosion, or simply a weapon system that would be capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.

His post on Wednesday night acknowledged the "tremendous destructive power" of nuclear weapons, but said he had "no choice" but to update and renovate the US arsenal during his first term in office.

He also said that China's nuclear program "will be even within 5 years".

Part of the confusion stems from Trump’s phrasing. In nuclear terminology, “testing” can refer either to detonating a warhead or to trialling its delivery system. Nagy notes that the latter is more likely: “Nuclear weapons consist of both the warhead and its delivery vehicle. Testing could therefore refer not to a nuclear explosive test, but to missile systems such as additional Minuteman or Trident trials. All of these would carry symbolic, not explosive, significance.”

If Trump was indeed referring to missile testing, his declaration would amount to symbolism rather than substance, a gesture of parity with Moscow and Beijing rather than a resumption of Cold War-style detonations. The announcement marks an apparent reversal of a long-standing US policy. The last US nuclear weapons test was in 1992, before former Republican President George HW Bush issued a moratorium as the Cold War ended.

Russia announced over the weekend that it had successfully tested two new weapons capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

These included a missile which the Kremlin said could penetrate US defence systems, and an underwater drone called Poseidon, capable of hitting the American west coast and triggering radioactive ocean swells. But those tests did not involve the detonation of nuclear weapons.

On Thursday, Russia denied it had carried out nuclear tests.

"Regarding the tests of Poseidon and Burevestnik, we hope that the information was conveyed correctly to President Trump," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. "This cannot in any way be interpreted as a nuclear test."

The Kremlin said the United States had not notified Russia of its intention to conduct nuclear weapons testing.

"The US is a sovereign country which has a right to make its sovereign decisions. But I want to recall President Putin's statement, which has been repeated many times: if someone departs from the moratorium, Russia will act accordingly," the spokesman said.

China has also responded to Trump's announcement, saying it hoped the US would earnestly fulfill its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and honour its commitment to suspend nuclear testing.

Trump has said the US has more nuclear weapons than any other country.

The exact number of warheads held by each country is kept secret in each case - but Russia is thought to have a total of about 5,459 warheads while the US has about 5,177, according to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).

The US-based ACA gives slightly higher estimates, saying America's nuclear stockpile sits at about 5,225 warheads, while Russia has approximately 5,580.

China is the third largest nuclear power with about 600 warheads, France has 290, the United Kingdom 225, India 180, Pakistan 170, Israel 90 and North Korea 50, FAS reports.

According to US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), China has roughly doubled its nuclear arsenal in the past five years and is expected to exceed 1,000 weapons by 2030.

Trump's statement about nuclear testing came about 100 days before the expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New Start) in February 2026 - the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the US and Russia.

The agreement limits each country to 1,550 warheads on deployed missiles capable of crossing continents.

The last time the US tested a nuclear bomb was 23 September 1992. The test took place at an underground facility in the western state of Nevada.

The project, code named Divider, was the 1,054th nuclear weapons test conducted by the US, according to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which played a central role in helping develop the world's first atomic bomb.

The Nevada Test Site, 65 miles (105km) north of Las Vegas, is still operated by the US government.

"If deemed necessary, the site could be authorized again for nuclear weapons testing," according to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, which is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

But some experts note that it would take the US at least 36 months to restart underground nuclear tests at the former Nevada test site.
"Trump is misinformed and out of touch," Daryl G Kimball, executive director of the ACA, wrote on X. "The US has no technical, military, or political justification for resuming nuclear explosive testing for the first time since 1992."

"Trump will trigger strong public opposition in Nevada, from all US allies, and it could trigger a chain reaction of nuclear testing by US adversaries, and blow apart the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, " Mr Kimball added.

Trump's announcement also drew negative reactions from a few opposition Democrats. Representative Dina Titus, from Nevada, wrote on X: "I'll be introducing legislation to put a stop to this."

The US first marched into the nuclear era with the Trinity test of the first atomic bomb in July 1945 in the desert at Alamogordo, New Mexico.

It later became the only country in the world to use nuclear weapons in warfare after dropping two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of the same year during World War Two.

Approximately 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki, with many deaths occurring from immediate blast effects, burns, and later from radiation sickness.

The United States has not conducted an explosive nuclear test since 1992, instead relying on advanced computer modelling, sub-critical testing, and high-performance simulation to maintain the reliability of its stockpile. With artificial intelligence, supercomputers, and big-data modelling, Washington has avoided the need for actual detonations while keeping its deterrent credible.

A resumption of live testing, therefore, is neither technically necessary nor politically straightforward. The U.S. remains a signatory to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which outlaws all nuclear explosions. Reversing that decades-old moratorium would undermine a cornerstone of global non-proliferation and invite severe diplomatic backlash.

Still, Trump’s ambiguity has sparked debate within his own political ranks. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth defended “resuming testing” as a “responsible” move to ensure deterrence, while critics warned that such rhetoric risks emboldening hardliners in rival states. Senator Tom Cotton hailed Trump’s approach as sending “a strong message of resolve,” but others cautioned that it could dangerously normalize talk of nuclear use.

Reactions abroad were swift. The Kremlin denied any link between its recent missile demonstrations and nuclear detonations, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressing that Russia’s drills “cannot in any way be interpreted as a nuclear test.” China urged the US to “earnestly abide” by the global testing ban, while Japan’s atomic-bomb survivors group Nihon Hidankyo issued a letter of protest, calling Trump’s move “utterly unacceptable.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated that “nuclear testing can never be permitted under any circumstances,” warning that any breach could erode global arms-control regimes already under stress.

Iran, whose nuclear facilities were bombed under Trump’s earlier orders, called the directive “regressive and irresponsible,” accusing Washington of hypocrisy for “demonizing Iran’s peaceful nuclear program” while considering its own tests.

Nagy cautions that even rhetorical hints of testing can have serious consequences. “A resumption of nuclear testing would risk triggering a destabilizing chain reaction,” he said. “Moscow and Beijing could use it as justification for their own demonstrative tests, and North Korea might follow suit for technical gains.”

Such escalation would further erode the already fragile consensus behind the CTBT, particularly after Russia withdrew its ratification last year. The danger lies not only in the act itself but in the normalization of testing talk, what Nagy calls the “casualization of nuclear discourse.”

As analysts note, nuclear deterrence has always contained a measure of ambiguity. But Trump’s public confusion between warheads and missiles underscores a deeper concern, the risk of strategic miscommunication in an era of volatile leadership.

“Deterrence can tolerate ambiguity, but it cannot survive incoherence,” one former Pentagon official observed. “When the world’s most heavily armed nuclear power sends mixed signals, others will prepare for the worst.”

For now, Trump’s nuclear remarks appear more rhetorical than operational yet their implications are far from harmless. In a world already navigating great-power rivalries, collapsing arms-control treaties, and rising nuclear modernization, even a few careless words from a US president can sound alarm bells across continents.

The United Nations says atmospheric testing was responsible for a radiological disaster in the Marshall Islands in 1954. After testing a hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll, radioactive particles reached inhabited islands, a fishing boat and the members of the U.S. military. Some of the Marshall Islands remain radioactive to this day.

Underwater testing is when the explosion takes place in water. In this type of test, the blast can disperse radioactive water and steam, contaminating marine life and nearby ships.

"Let's start with the worst-case scenarios. He does do underground testing. What would happen if you exploded a nuclear bomb in one of these underground tunnels? You would have radioactive decay products, which could contaminate the environment," said Kleiman.

Underground testing involves an explosion occurring under the surface of the Earth. This type of testing can be safer if the explosion is contained, but the U.N. warns that if underground nuclear tests "vent" to the surface, they can produce considerable radioactive debris."

Kleiman added, "Underground testing, that's better than above-ground, but still not a good thing. There are other ways to test nuclear weapons. You can test the radioactive component of a nuclear weapon without actually exploding it."

Drozdenko says underground explosive tests can result in "catastrophic breaches" that can harm site workers, and that "even small leaks can contaminate groundwater and ecosystems, posing possible long-term exposure and health risks."

She noted that the world is still recovering from the Cold War-era nuclear testing and its impact on the people who worked on nuclear programs and those who lived close to the nuclear test sites.


Mahfuz Ul Hasib Chowdhury
is a contributor to different
English newspapers and magazines.