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In his latest Truth Social post, Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. “has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country.” But estimates from the Federation of American Scientists show that Russia still leads in nuclear warhead inventories. China is also expanding its inventory, but the last time it conducted a nuclear test was in 1996. Restarting nuclear weapons testing would be monumental for the U.S., which last carried out its 1,054th nuclear test in September 1992. All three geopolitical powers are signatories of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which bars parties from “carry[ing] out any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion,” though the U.S. and China have not ratified it. Russia initially ratified the treaty in 2000, but it withdrew its ratification in 2023 to align with the U.S.’ status. North Korea is the only country known to have conducted tests with nuclear explosives in the 21st century, though other nuclear powers continue to test the systems that could deliver such.
