President Trump told reporters Friday they would “find out very soon” when asked to clarify if he plans on resuming underground nuclear detonation tests following his announcement this week that he is directing the Pentagon to restart nuclear weapons tests.
“You’ll find out very soon. But we’re going to do some testing, yeah,” Trump said on Air Force One. “Other countries do it. If they’re going to do it, we’re going to do it. I’m not going to say here.”
On Wednesday, Trump directed the Pentagon to immediately begin testing U.S. nuclear weapons on an equal basis to China and Russia.
“The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post. “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! Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years.”
The announcement came less than an hour before his highly anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea on trade.
Trump initially ignored a question from a reporter on the announcement during his meeting with Xi, but told reporters after that the news “had to do with others” when asked whether it had to do with Xi.
“They seem to all be nuclear testing. We have more nuclear weapons than anybody,” the president said.
“We don’t do testing, and we halted it many years ago, but with others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do also,” he continued.
North Korea is the only country that has carried out nuclear testing since the 1990s. Russia has been testing nuclear-capable weapons tests, which does not include setting off actual bombs. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been testing missiles capable of having nuclear warheads as recently as this week.
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