Politics

But 10 months into his second administration, the president is commanding officials to resume nuclear weapons testing, which would end the U.S’s 33-year moratorium and invite a global arms race in a volatile political moment.

Claiming that the United States must reach parity with weapons development in China and Russia, Trump ordered the Pentagon on October 30 to “start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,” a process that will begin “immediately,” he said.

The last confirmed nuclear test by the United States was in 1992 under then-President George H.W. Bush, who established a moratorium on all nuclear testing. China has reportedly not tested a nuclear weapon since 1996, and Russia’s most recent tests involved delivery systems, not actual detonation of a nuclear device.