Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to begin their first nuclear tests since 1992 – just moments before the president’s pivotal meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump told the Department of War to begin testing nukes ‘immediately’ and explained the military flex was necessary to combat Russia and China from closing the gap in the arms race.
‘The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country,’ he began.
‘This was accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons, during my First Term in office. Because of the tremendous destructive power, I HATED to do it, but had no choice!’
He added about the arms race: ‘Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years.’
Trump then revealed his mission to increase testing nukes in order to compete with the 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 declared. ‘That process will begin immediately.’
The US military already regularly tests its missiles that are capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, but it has not detonated the weapons since 1992 because of a test ban.
Shortly after his post, Trump was seen shaking hands with Xi in Busan, South Korea on Thursday prior to a landmark meeting between the two world leaders.
Donald Trump announced that the US Department of War will ramp up nuclear testing immediately to combat Russia and China from getting even in the arms race
Workers prepare the B61-13, a nuclear ‘gravity bomb’ 24 times more powerful than the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945
When asked about his Truth Social post ahead of the sit-down, Trump refused to comment and indicated in a rare move that he was not taking any questions from the press.
Following a handshake that marked their first meeting in six years, Xi acknowledged their ‘frictions’ as Trump joked about his counterpart being a ‘tough negotiator.’
Their face-to-face comes after Trump kicked off a trade war with China after reentering office this year.
But Trump told reporters on Air Force One after the historic sit-down that he slashed 10 percent from China‘s tariff bill because he believes their leader will work to stymie the flow of deadly drugs to the US.
‘On fentanyl we agreed that he was going to work very hard to stop the flow,’ Trump insisted on the plane ride home. ‘I think you’re going to see some real action taken.’
He said the tariff reduction is ‘effective immediately.’
‘I believe he’s going to work very hard to stop the death that’s coming in.’
Just last month, Trump took to Truth Social to publicly chastise the Chinese leader, linking him to Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while criticizing Beijing for conspiring ‘against the United States of America.’
President Donald Trump (pictured left) and China’s President Xi Jinping pose for photos as they arrive for talks at the Gimhae Air Base, located next to the Gimhae International Airport in Busan
Trump’s cabinet met with several of their Chinese counterparts
After their meeting, the two emerged from the room appearing cordial. They exchanged some words, shook hands and Trump leaned in for a final message to his Chinese counterpart before parting ways.
After Trump’s Moscow outreach with Putin fell apart and new US oil–trade sanctions tightened the screws on Russia, Trump has turned his attention to Beijing, seeking to leverage the failed Russian dialogue into pressure on Xi, who has quietly backed Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.
The move comes after Putin said on Sunday that Russia had successfully tested its ‘unstoppable’ nuclear-powered cruise missile. Moscow says the weapon, called the ‘Flying Chernobyl,’ can pierce any defense shield, and has ‘unlimited range’.
Asked on Air Force One about the test of the missile, dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO, Trump said the United States did not need its nukes to fly so far as it had a nuclear submarine off the coast of Russia.
‘They know we have a nuclear submarine, the greatest in the world, right off their shores, so I mean, [our missile] doesn’t have to go 8,000 miles,’ Trump told reporters, according to an audio file posted by the White House.
The president made the announcement on Truth Social just hours before his scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping
The US has not conducted a real-world test of a nuclear bomb since 1992
‘I don’t think it’s an appropriate thing for Putin to be saying, either, by the way: You ought to get the war ended, the war that should have taken one week is now in… its fourth year, that’s what you ought to do instead of testing missiles.’
In response to Trump on Monday, the Kremlin defiantly said that Russia would be guided by its own national interests.
‘Despite all our openness to establishing a dialogue with the United States, Russia, first of all, and the president of Russia, is guided by our own national interests,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
‘That’s how it was, that’s how it is, and that’s how it’s going to be.’
The Kremlin said Russia was ensuring its own security by developing new weapons.
‘There is nothing here that can and should strain relations between Moscow and Washington,’ Peskov said.
Trump has repeatedly spoken of moving US submarines to Russia’s coast after remarks by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the risk of war between the nuclear-armed adversaries.
It is rare for either side to discuss in public the location of nuclear-armed submarines.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi in 2024
Speaking about the Russian missile test, Trump said: ‘We test missiles all the time.’
‘They’re not playing games with us and we’re not playing games with them either,’ he added.
On Sunday, the Russian president announced the ‘successful’ secret test flight on October 21 of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile.
Dressed in military uniform, Putin spoke of the weapon during a late-night visit to a war command post, where he was briefed on the Ukrainian frontline by Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, 70.
As he made his remarks, Russian missiles pounded residential blocks in Kyiv, in a barbaric attack, killing at least three sleeping civilians and injuring nearly 30 others, including seven children.
Defying Trump’s latest calls for peace, Putin also revealed details of nuclear war drills carried out by his forces over the past week.
‘The modernity of our….nuclear deterrent forces, is at the highest level,’ he boasted.
‘Well, it would probably be no exaggeration to say that it is at a higher level than all nuclear states.’
Chinese President Xi Jinping disembarks from a government plane upon arrival at Gimhae
He revealed new tests on a missile intended to fly for days at a time and able to counter all current Western defenSes.
The US has not conducted a real-world test of a nuclear bomb since 1992.
After decades of declining nuclear stockpiles, the nuclear agency sees a real possibility that more countries around the world – including India, Pakistan, and North Korea – are preparing to enter a nuclear arms race.
As of 2023, the US Department of Energy reports that America has 3,748 nuclear warheads.
However, the nonpartisan Arms Control Association estimated that the number was significantly higher, putting the total at 5,225 as of January 2025.
Currently, progress on a treaty banning the testing of nuclear weapons has stalled, and there is already evidence that world powers are moving ahead with nuclear rearmament.
Most of America’s plutonium has been sitting around for decades, leading to fears that the radioactive decay will damage the unused weapons.
Plutonium has five ‘common’ isotopes which have different rates of decay, ranging from just 87 years to over 24,000 years, according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
