• Senior U.S. officials are attempting to persuade President Trump to reconsider reported plans to resume nuclear weapons testing, following his public statements advocating for renewed detonations.
  • The administration's internal discussions focus on systems tests and non-nuclear explosions, creating confusion with the president's more expansive public comments about explosive testing.
  • International reaction has been swift, with Russia indicating it would consider resuming its own tests in response, potentially triggering a new arms race and undermining decades of nonproliferation efforts.

High-level officials across multiple agencies are working to contain the fallout from President Trump's recent statements about resuming nuclear weapons testing, according to people familiar with the matter. The president announced through social media and in interviews his intent to restart U.S. nuclear testing, citing claims that adversaries including Russia and China are already conducting tests.

The internal pushback comes as administration officials attempt to clarify that current discussions are focused on systems tests and non-nuclear explosions rather than a return to full-scale explosive testing. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other senior figures have emphasized the ongoing modernization of the U.S. nuclear stockpile without requiring detonations, though the president's comments have generated significant confusion within the national security community.

International reaction has been immediate and critical. Both China and Russia publicly denied conducting active nuclear explosive testing and called for the United States to honor its testing moratorium. More concerning, according to diplomatic sources, Russia's President Putin has instructed ministries to analyze and potentially restart Russian testing in direct response to Trump's comments.

"We're seeing a very dangerous escalation in rhetoric that could quickly translate into action," said one former official briefed on the discussions, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters. "The testing moratorium has held for over thirty years for good reason—breaking it would fundamentally reshape global security dynamics."

The U.S. last conducted an underground nuclear weapons test in 1992, with above-ground tests ending in the 1960s. The current moratorium has served as a cornerstone of international nonproliferation efforts, though the U.S., Russia, and China remain signatories who have not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

Multiple attempts to reach White House spokespeople for clarification on the administration's position went unanswered. A Department of Energy official, speaking on background, stressed that "current stockpile stewardship activities do not require explosive testing and provide high confidence in our deterrent capabilities."

Arms control experts warn that any U.S. return to nuclear explosive testing would almost certainly trigger similar moves by other nuclear-armed states, destabilize existing arms control frameworks, and potentially launch a new arms race at a time of already heightened great power competition.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the year of the last U.S. underground nuclear test. It was 1992, not 1991.