ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump declined to say Friday whether he plans to resume underground nuclear detonation tests, as he had seemed to suggest in a social media post this week that raised concerns the U.S. would begin testing nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades.
The president told reporters “You’ll find out very soon,” without elaborating when asked if he means to resume underground nuclear detonation tests.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered few details on Friday when asked about what nuclear testing the Pentagon would oversee. But he seemed to indicate to reporters that the intent was to test warheads when he said “resuming testing” would be “pretty responsible.”
Trump, who spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed to Florida for a weekend stay, said, “We’re going to do some testing” and “Other countries do it. If they’re going to do it, we’re going to” but then refused to offer more details.
His comments on nuclear testing have drawn confusion inside and outside the government when the president seemed to suggest in a brief post that the U.S. would resume nuclear warhead tests on an “equal basis” with Russia and China, whose last known tests were in the 1990s. Some of Trump’s comments seemed to refer to testing missiles that would deliver a warhead, rather than the warhead itself. There has been no indication that the U.S. would start detonating warheads.
The U.S. military already regularly tests its missiles that are capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, but it has not detonated the weapons since 1992. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which the U.S. signed but did not ratify, has been observed since its adoption by all countries possessing nuclear weapons, North Korea being the only exception.
The Pentagon has not responded to questions. The Energy Department, which oversees the U.S. nuclear stockpile, declined to comment Friday.
Hegseth, speaking as he appeared at a meeting of defense ministers in Malaysia on the sidelines of a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said the Pentagon would work with the Energy Department.
“The president was clear: We need to have a credible nuclear deterrent,” he said. “That is the baseline of our deterrence.” He said “resuming testing is a pretty responsible — very responsible — way to do that. And I think it makes nuclear conflict less likely.”
He added a few moments later: “It’s the right directive. We’ve moving out quickly.”
Trump’s post on nuclear tests came as Russia this week announced it had tested a new atomic-powered and nuclear-capable underwater drone and a new nuclear-powered cruise missile.
Russia responded to Trump’s post by underscoring that it did not test its nuclear weapons and has abided by a global ban on nuclear testing. The Kremlin warned though, that if the U.S. resumes testing its weapons, Russia will as well — an intensification that would restart Cold War-era tensions.
Vice Adm. Richard Correll, Trump’s nominee to lead the military command in charge of the nation’s nuclear arsenal, struggled to interpret the president’s comments when he testified before senators during a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday, telling them, “I’m not reading anything into it or reading anything out of it.”
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