Trump says US will restart nuclear weapons testing

"President Donald Trump says he has instructed the Pentagon to immediately start testing nuclear weapons, citing a need to match "other countries [sic] testing programs." Trump's post on Truth Social included very few details on the nature of the tests, but says the "process will begin immediately." It's not clear whether Trump is referring to explosive tests of nuclear warheads or tests of systems capable of delivering them."

"The comments - arriving just before his anticipated meeting with China's Xi Jinping, which resulted in reduced tariffs on Chinese imports - appear to upend decades of American policy. The last US nuclear test was in 1992, before George HW Bush enacted a moratorium at the end of the Cold War. Trump's post was riddled with errors: Russia, not the US, has the world's largest nuclear stockpile, and no country, with the exception of North Korea, is confirmed to have tested nuclear weapons since the 1990s, according to the UN. The US is also a signatory to the international treaty banning nuclear weapons tests, though has not ratified it."

President Donald Trump instructed the Pentagon to immediately begin testing nuclear weapons, citing a need to match other countries' testing programs. His Truth Social post provided few details and said the process would begin immediately. The announcement did not specify whether tests would be explosive warhead detonations or exercises of delivery systems. The comments preceded a meeting with China's Xi Jinping that produced reduced tariffs on Chinese imports. The statement would upend decades of U.S. policy; the last U.S. nuclear test occurred in 1992 before a moratorium. The post contained factual errors about global stockpiles and recent testing, and the U.S. has signed but not ratified the test ban treaty.

Read at The Verge