WASHINGTON, D.C., October 30, 2025 — President Donald J. Trump has announced that he has instructed the Pentagon to begin testing nuclear weapons for the first time in more than three decades, a move that would mark a major shift in U.S. defence and foreign policy.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, President Trump said the decision was prompted by what he described as nuclear testing activities by other world powers.
“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.
The president did not elaborate on which countries he was referring to. Both Russia and China, the nations often cited as America’s primary strategic competitors, have not conducted any confirmed nuclear tests in decades, according to data from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO). The last verified nuclear test worldwide was carried out by North Korea in 2017.
The United States has not conducted a nuclear weapons test since 1992, when then-President George H.W. Bush declared a moratorium on such activities. Since then, the U.S. has relied on computer modelling and subcritical experiments — which do not produce nuclear explosions — to assess the safety and reliability of its nuclear arsenal.
As of Thursday, neither the Pentagon nor the Department of Energy, which jointly oversee America’s nuclear weapons program, had issued a formal response to President Trump’s directive.
It remains unclear whether the order calls for a return to underground explosive testing or an expansion of non-explosive experimental programs.
The United States is a signatory to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), an international agreement that bans all nuclear explosions. While Washington signed the treaty in 1996, it has not been ratified by the U.S. Senate.
The White House has yet to release further details about the implementation timeline or scope of the proposed testing program.
