Trump wrote on social media on Thursday that due to "other countries' testing programs" he had ordered the Pentagon "to begin testing our nuclear weapons on equal terms."
The president has since only given vague answers to follow-up questions from journalists. The announcement has also been criticized by, among others, the UN Secretary-General and met with raised eyebrows from China and Russia.
However, the president stands by his word.
I don't want us to be the only country that doesn't carry out tests.
China denies
When he is confronted with the fact that China and Russia have not conducted any tests with actual nuclear weapons, he denies the information.
"Russia is testing nuclear weapons and China is testing them too. You just don't know about it," Trump says, continuing:
We have to talk about it, because otherwise you will report on it. They don't have reporters who will write about it, but we do.
China denies reports that it is conducting nuclear weapons tests.
"China has always followed a peaceful path of development, pursued a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons, maintained a nuclear self-defense strategy and adhered to its commitment to refrain from nuclear tests," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to AFP.
“System tests”
On Sunday, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the country will not conduct any test explosions.
"I think the tests we're talking about right now are system tests," the minister said in an interview with Fox News.
These are not nuclear explosions.
Instead, it's about "what we call non-critical explosions" and testing "all other parts" of the weapons.
The United States regularly tests its nuclear-capable missiles, but has not tested any nuclear weapons since 1992. The world's other nuclear powers have also refrained from explosive nuclear weapons tests, with the exception of North Korea.
