Trump Orders Resumption of Nuclear Weapons Testing

President Trump has ordered the United States to resume nuclear-weapons testing, announcing the decision on Truth Social and reiterating it on CBS's 60 Minutes ahead of a meeting with China's Xi Jinping. Senior officials signaled initial activities are likely to be system or noncritical/subcritical tests rather than full explosive detonations, to be led by the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration at the Nevada test site. Former workers and experts warn experience, personnel and facilities have atrophied, and that restarting physical detonations would be costly and complex. The move would upend decades of U.S. practice, complicate arms-control norms (including the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which the U.S. has not ratified), and occurs amid rival nuclear build-ups cited as justification. The order fits Trump's "peace through strength" posture and broader assertive foreign-policy agenda. It is likely to prompt domestic and diplomatic pushback, including proposed congressional measures to block funding.