Donald Trump makes huge claim about US nuclear test and points to China plan
"I'm saying testing is because Russia announced that they were going to be doing a test. If you notice, North Korea is testing constantly. Other countries are testing. We're the only country that doesn't test."
Donald Trump said he plans to resume testing nuclear weapons after more than 30 years of not doing so, while claiming China has already been doing its own tests.
He spoke during a sit-down interview with CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday. The U.S. has not conducted a nuclear weapon since 1992, and the only country in recent years to conduct such tests is North Korea. However, during the interview, Trump claimed the U.S. is the "only country that doesn't test."
"I'm saying testing is because Russia announced that they were going to be doing a test. If you notice, North Korea is testing constantly. Other countries are testing. We're the only country that doesn't test. And I want to be, I don't want to be the only country that doesn't test."
Trump claimed that China and Russia are testing nuclear weapons but the tests are not made public.
"Russia is testing nuclear weapons, my understanding, and China is testing them too. You just don't know about it. That would be certainly very newsworthy. My understanding is what Russia did recently was test essentially, the delivery systems for nuclear weapons, essentially missiles, which we can do that," Trump said.
"Russia's testing and China's testing, they don't talk about it. You know, we're a open society. We're different. We talk about it. We have to talk about it, because otherwise, you people are going to report. They don't have reporters who are going to be writing about it," he added.
Trump also said during the interview that President Xi has given him assurances that Beijing would take no action toward its long-stated goal of unifying Taiwan with mainland China while the Republican leader is in office.
Trump said that the long-contentious issue of Taiwan did not come up in his talks with Xi on Thursday in South Korea that largely focused on U.S.-China trade tensions. But the U.S. leader expressed certainty that China would not take action on Taiwan, while he’s in office.
Given that Trump has indicated both publicly and privately that he does not think China will invade the self-governing island that Beijing claims it owns while he is in office, it is unclear how seriously the president will take bolstering Taiwan's defense during his second term. This is why he has refused to categorically rule out Taiwan becoming a pawn in trade talks between the world's two largest economies.
Click here to follow the Mirror US on Google News to stay up to date with all the latest news, sports and entertainment stories
Over the weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also stated that no one in the administration is considering a trade agreement that would give Taiwan "favorable treatment."
However, some analysts are still concerned that Trump would be open to making concessions on Taiwan in exchange for a stronger trade agreement, although former Trump administration officials contend that those worries are unfounded.