Confronted with a lack of evidence for his claims of secret nuclear tests by China and Russia, Donald Trump was dismissive, saying, “this is a big world. You don’t necessarily know where they’re testing.” He used these unverified claims to order a resumption of U.S. testing.
The former president alleged in a ‘60 minutes’ interview that rivals were testing “way underground where people don’t know exactly what’s happening.” He insisted the U.S. would not be “the only country that doesn’t test.”
China’s foreign ministry issued a strong denial, calling itself a “responsible nuclear-weapons state.” The ministry’s statement affirmed that China has honored its “commitment to suspend nuclear testing” as part of its “self-defence” strategy.
Trump’s order to the “Department of War” was announced on social media, where he claimed he “had no choice” but to resume testing “on an equal basis.”
This move escalates global tensions, especially following Russia’s test of its Burevestnik missile. Trump also boasted of the U.S. arsenal’s size, claiming it could “blow up the world 150 times.”
