In the midst of trading promises with both allies and adversaries during his recent tour of Asia, U.S. President Donald Trump dampened the positive mood with an ominous pronouncement. “Because of other countries testing programs,” Trump wrote in a social media post that pointed to the size of Russia’s and China’s nuclear arsenals, “I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.”
A few days later, during a televised interview, Trump revisited his order to resume testing nuclear weapons, though there was some confusion over his rationale for it—specifically whether he believed China, Russia and North Korea had been testing their nuclear weapons or instead simply testing their delivery systems for those weapons.
Russian officials immediately demanded clarity from Trump. Was he planning to resume explosive testing or just the testing of systems that detonate a nuclear device? Regardless, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserted that Russia “will respond in kind.”