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President Trump has directed the Pentagon to resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time since 1992. He made the announcement just before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss trade relations. Dr. Ira Helfand, former president of Physicians for Social Responsibility and a leading campaigner against nuclear proliferation, says the White House needs to "clarify" Trump's intentions, and urges countries to recommit to nuclear disarmament.
"This idea is dismissed sometimes as being unrealistic. I think what's unrealistic is the belief that we can continue to maintain these enormous nuclear arsenals and expect that nothing is going to go wrong," says Helfand. "Our luck is going to run out at some point."
Trump's announcement comes just months before the last major nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia — the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START — expires in February 2026.
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The two leaders reached an agreement on fentanyl, some tariffs and rare earths, at least for a year. But even as the global trade picture cleared a little, Mr. Trump spurred new worries about nuclear proliferation.
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