President Trump declared recently the United States will resume nuclear testing in response to nuclear tests by Russia, China and North Korea.
On CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday, Norah O’Donnell asked the president about the testing announcement that came shortly before his meeting Oct. 30 with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Mr. Trump said he would like to see arms talks on “denuclearization” with both Russia and China, and he revealed that both countries have conducted nuclear tests despite a declared moratorium on testing.
First, the president said the United States has more nuclear arms than any nation. “Russia’s second. China’s a very distant third, but they’ll be even in five years. You know, they’re making them rapidly, and I think we should do something about denuclearization,” he said.
The topic of nuclear arms talks was raised with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mr. Xi, Mr. Trump said.
Since he favors denuclearization, why the need for testing, the president was asked.
“Well, because you have to see how they work,” Mr. Trump said. He noted that Russia has announced it plans to conduct a nuclear test, and North Korea also is “testing constantly” and that other countries also are testing.
“We’re the only country that doesn’t test, and I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test,” he said.
Asked if the U.S. will begin conducting underground detonations, Mr. Trump said: “I’m saying that we’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do, yes.”
Ms. O’Donnell then said only North Korea is conducting nuclear tests and that Russia and China were not testing.
“No, no, Russia’s testing nuclear weapons,” Mr. Trump said. “And China’s testing them, too. You just don’t know about it.”
Both Moscow and Beijing “don’t talk about” it, while the U.S. is an open society and “we talk about it,” he said.
“But they don’t go and tell you about it. … You don’t necessarily know where they’re testing. They test way underground where people don’t know exactly what’s happening with the test.
“You feel a little bit of a vibration. They test, and we don’t test. We have to test.”
Moscow also made “a little bit of a threat the other day when they said they were going to do certain forms of a different level of testing. But Russia tests, China does test, and we’re going to test, also,” Mr. Trump said.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe backed up the president on social media, saying “@realDonaldTrump is right.” The X post included a 2019 statement from then-Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley saying Russia was not adhering to a zero-testing nuclear moratorium. He also posted a Wall Street Journal headline from 2020 on a possible Chinese nuclear test.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, then said in a post on X: “After consultations with Director Ratcliffe and his team, they have confirmed to me that the CIA assesses that both Russia and China have conducted super-critical nuclear weapons tests in excess of the U.S. zero-yield standard. These tests are not historic and are part of their nuclear modernization programs.”
Vice Adm. Richard A. Correll, nominee to be the next Strategic Command commander, told a Senate hearing Oct. 30 that neither Russia nor China has conducted a nuclear “explosive” test.
Mr. Trump, Adm. Correll stated, has said U.S. testing would be equal to that of Beijing and Moscow.
Those tests are called “subcritical” nuclear tests — those that are fall short of a full-scale nuclear detonation.
