JD Vance defends Trump's nuclear test plan as 'crucial for security'

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
30 Oct 2025 23:06

US Vice President JD Vance defended President Trump's decision to resume nuclear weapons testing, calling it vital for national security despite growing international backlash and fears of renewed arms competition.

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An unarmed Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, during a test in 2002. (US Air Force)

US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday defended President Donald Trump’s decision to resume nuclear weapons testing, calling it "a crucial aspect of national security" and asserting that the United States must ensure its arsenal remains functional amid growing competition with Russia and China.

"The Russians have a large nuclear arsenal, the Chinese have a large nuclear arsenal. Sometimes you've got to test it to make sure that it's functioning and working properly," Vance told reporters at the White House. "It's important part of American national security to make sure that this nuclear arsenal we have actually functions properly."

His comments came a day after Trump declared on Truth Social that he had "instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis," adding that the process would "begin immediately." The announcement marked an end to more than three decades of restraint since Washington’s last full-scale test in 1992.

Remember when Tulsi Gabbard implored us that we had to elect Trump to stop the "New Cold War" and nuclear arms race pic.twitter.com/1ri64PBAYi
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 30, 2025

Democratic leaders swiftly condemned the move. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries warned that "the resumption of nuclear testing would be a massive breach of international treaties that have been in place for decades," calling it "another example of Donald Trump and Republican policies going too far."

Arms unraveling

The United States has not conducted a full-scale nuclear test since 1992, and reactivating such programs could undermine global nonproliferation efforts and heighten tensions with other nuclear powers. Experts note that the decision further erodes the global arms control framework, already weakened by the US withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019 and the collapse of the Open Skies Treaty in 2020.

According to a report published by The New York Times, Trump's remarks have reignited tensions between Washington and Beijing, as analysts warn the announcement risks deepening nuclear rivalry among the world's major powers. The paper's China correspondent, Chris Buckley, noted that the timing of Trump's statement, made shortly before a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, has alarmed policymakers who fear it could derail fragile diplomatic engagement.

Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the Times that if the US resumes nuclear testing, it would "effectively give China and Russia a carte blanche to do the same," further destabilizing the already strained nonproliferation regime. Satellite imagery has meanwhile shown renewed construction at China's Lop Nur nuclear test site in Xinjiang, raising speculation about possible preparations for underground testing.

Russia's suspension of its participation in New START and its recent de-ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty have added to the breakdown of safeguards designed to prevent escalation. With the Non-Proliferation Treaty still in force but increasingly fragile, analysts warn that a renewed US testing program could dismantle the last remaining pillars of nuclear restraint and usher in a new era of arms competition.