On October 29, 2025, just minutes before his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. would “start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis with other nations”. While returning to Washington, Mr. Trump told reporters, aboard Air Force One, “We have halted it for years – many years.
But with others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we also do.” Back in the U.S., Mr. Trump repeated his claims in an interview. “Russia is testing; China is testing, but they don’t talk about it… And certainly North Korea has been testing. Pakistan has been testing.”
Mr. Trump is correct about North Korea, which has tested multiple nuclear weapons in the new century. But other nuclear powers, including the U.S., China and Russia, have maintained a moratorium on weapons testing since the 1990s. They, however, have tested weapons that can carry nuclear warheads.
Mr. Trump’s announcement came immediately after Russia announced that it successfully tested a nuclear-powered cruise missile (Burevestnik) and an undersea torpedo (Poseidon). Both are designed to overcome American missile defence systems and can carry nuclear warheads. But those were not nuclear detonation tests.