What to Make of Trump's Wild Nuclear Threat

"In a message posted minutes before his meeting in South Korea with China's President Xi Jingping, Trump wrote, "Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately." He later elaborated to reporters that although the U.S. stopped testing nuclear weapons a long time ago, Russia and China were still testing, so we have to start testing again too."

"This restraint stems from three factors: 1) the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1996, which all three nations have observed even though their parliaments didn't ratify it; 2) a desire to avoid the resumption of an arms race, which further testing could spark; and 3) a recognition that lab-testing the components of warheads can gauge their reliability well enough."

Trump announced instructions to begin immediate testing of U.S. nuclear weapons, citing Russian and Chinese testing. If referring to nuclear bombs and warheads, the United States, Russia, and China have not conducted explosive tests for about 30 years. That restraint rests on observance of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, a desire to avoid restarting an arms race, and reliance on laboratory testing of warhead components. If referring to delivery missiles, all three countries routinely test those systems. A reported Russian test of a nuclear-powered cruise missile, if real, is more a technical and fiscal issue than an acute operational threat.

Read at Slate Magazine