In a Truth Social post on Wednesday night, Donald Trump announced that he is bringing back nuclear weapons tests after the U.S. ended the practice 33 years ago. As Trump put it, “because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.”
The last U.S. nuclear test took place on September 23, 1992, around the same time the creation of new material for making nuclear warheads was paused. The testing program was subsequently replaced with a program called “Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship.”
Even when China detonated a hydrogen bomb in 1994, the U.S. maintained its stance and did not resume testing. This restraint was seen as an important achievement for the post-Cold War arms control process.
Trump also made a puzzling claim on Truth Social that, during his first administration, he accomplished a nuclear build-out that gave the U.S. more nuclear weapons than Russia—the country commonly understood to have the largest nuclear arsenal.
https://gizmodo.com/u-s-nuclear-weapons-tests-will-begin-immediately-trump-says-2000679162
