WASHINGTON WEEK: Trade deals in Asia, a threat to resume nuclear weapons testing and a government shutdown that’s set to become the longest in American history. Join guest moderator Vivian Salama, Paul Beckett of The Atlantic, Jeff Mason of Reuters, Seung Min Kim of The Associated Press and Andrea Mitchell of NBC News to discuss this and more.

VIVIAN SALAMA, ‘THE ATLANTIC’ STAFF WRITER, ‘WASHINGTON WEEK’ GUEST HOST: Yes. Andrea, you mentioned the president’s suggestion about nuclear on Truth Social. On his way back from Asia, he wrote on Truth Social that he instructed the Department of War, formerly known as the Department of Defense, to start testing our nuclear weapons on, quote, an equal basis, and he said that process will begin immediately. Why the change in stance? ANDREA MITCHELL, NBC NEWS: Well, first of all, he said it this in real time. I was watching. He said it in our time around 9:39:45 P.M. exactly as he was about to walk into the meeting with President Xi. So, the initial signal is, whoa, are we talking about China, which has the third largest arsenal, way smaller than the Russians. No, he’s most likely reacting, and he later clarified on his way back home that he was talking more likely about what Putin had done in the 48 previous hours in testing a new nuclear-powered missile. So, not a nuclear — SALAMA: It’s important to note that the only country of all the nuclear powers that’s tested a weapon in recent years was North Korea, and that’s — the last time was in 2017. MITCHELL: Correct, and we have not done it since 1992. SALAMA: Right. MITCHELL: In addition, the only test site that is currently used or was used is in Nevada. The Nevada legislature, unanimously in May, passed a vote against any nuclear testing. So, it’s very unpopular. Now, it’s a federal site, but it’s unclear what he is asking for, because it’s the Energy Department that would have to do this, not the Pentagon. But then Secretary Hegseth the next day made it even more confusing, and so did the vice president. So, one of the things that I’m worried about, frankly, as a citizen is, is the president projecting, like right before a meeting with the other superpower, like China, that he doesn’t understand military terminology or nuclear weapons, and that the Pentagon doesn’t, and that there’s no process because I know Marco Rubio knows all this stuff. He was the intel leader on the Senate and he knows it cold. But this is actually in Project 2025. This is one of the proposals, to resume bomb testing. It’s very controversial with nuclear experts. All of the people who control nuclear weapons believe it’s proliferating. I talked to Jim Stavridis, who was our former NATO commander yesterday about this, and it would be a terrible idea in terms of proliferation to presume we are not signatories to the best test ban treaty, but we have observed it, as you point out, since 1992. So, you’re sending a signal that we don’t have an understanding, and I think it is the result of no deputies, no policy papers. And maybe this is Russ Vought, the author of the 2025 Project rather in 2024 pushing something, which is strategic policy that he knows really nothing about.

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