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Do Jen Psaki and her producers even bother to do their due diligence anymore? Thursday night’s The Briefing on MSNBC painted President Trump’s announcement to test the United States’ nuclear capabilities “on an equal basis” with our adversaries as an arbitrary and confusing decision without providing proper context or explanation.
Psaki first read a cherry-picked selection from the post by Trump announcing new “Nuclear Weapons” tests and declared, “… this announcement really came out of nowhere, and it’s not even clear what kind of nuclear test he means or why it’s so urgent to do them now.”
If you look at the literal Truth Social Post she displayed on screen, Trump stated the reasoning behind the decision was “Because of other countries testing programs,” which Psaki conveniently didn’t read aloud!
The post also explicitly mentioned Russia and China. Did Psaki’s team not know Russia tested a nuclear-capable missile and a new nuclear-powered underwater drone less than a week prior? China was also suspected to have been testing nuclear weapons due to suspicious activity at a testing site in recent memory.
She then played a clip from earlier in the day of Trump gaggling with press on Air Force One where he said there are “others doing testing,” which she claimed to not understand:
Others are testing? I mean, like who? We don’t really have any idea what he’s talking about, because the other nuclear superpowers, Russia and China, have not detonated a live nuclear weapon since the 1990s. America itself has not detonated one since 1992, which was 33 years ago. So, it’s really unclear what exactly is motivating Donald Trump to do this right now, to put out that statement last night.
The Trump administration hasn’t yet revealed if actual warheads were to be dropped or if the missile-launch systems will be given some practice runs. Regardless, what is clear is that Trump was matching Putin’s escalation like a classic western standoff; essentially the tried and true Cold War-era strategy of playing chicken with the Soviets. Psaki was playing dumb.
Psaki then facetiously brought up the recent fiasco inside the Pentagon over a new Netflix film, A House of Dynamite, “So clearly that movie struck a nerve inside the Trump administration. Could it have gotten under Trump’s skin, too? Could it have prompted, let’s say, a surprise announcement post about resuming nuclear tests? We don’t know.”
The insinuation was harmless enough, but served to delegitimize Trump’s handle on rising global tensions and intra-administration affairs.
Vice President JD Vance’s remarks on the subject from earlier in the day about stretching the legs of our nuclear capabilities were also used to make the administration appear wishy-washy. Psaki eventually relented, “… we have no legitimate reason to believe that there are any problems with America’s nuclear capacity. Even the Vice President walked his earlier statement back. But we have every reason to question how seriously this administration takes its responsibility when it comes to nukes.”
What Vance was possibly referencing was the embarrassing story from last years about how corrupt elements of China’s Rocket Force allegedly filled fuel tanks with water.
All in all, Psaki was not interested in actually reporting what was going on, and instead wanted to make Trump and his team look as stupid as possible. Either her situational awareness has deteriorated like Biden’s, or she was intentionally misleading MSNBC’s ever-shrinking audience.
The transcript is below. Click “expand” read:
MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki
October 30, 2025
9:29:53 p.m. EST
JEN PSAKI: Okay. Just before his big meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping yesterday, Donald Trump made, I mean, I guess you could call it a surprise announcement posting, quote, “I [have] instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” There you go.
Just a totally normal President talking about nuclear weapons in a totally normal way. And what could go wrong? I mean, this announcement really came out of nowhere, and it’s not even clear what kind of nuclear test he means or why it’s so urgent to do them now. And when reporters try to get some clarity from the President, he only made things much more confusing.
[Cuts to clip]
PRES. DONALD TRUMP [on 10/30/25]: They seem to all be nuclear testing.
REPORTER [on 10/30/25]: Russia?
TRUMP [on 10/30/25]: We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don’t do testing. We’ve halted it years, many years ago. But with others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do also.
[Cuts back to live]
PSAKI: Others are testing? I mean, like who? We don’t really have any idea what he’s talking about, because the other nuclear superpowers, Russia and China, have not detonated a live nuclear weapon since the 1990s. America itself has not detonated one since 1992, which was 33 years ago. So, it’s really unclear what exactly is motivating Donald Trump to do this right now, to put out that statement last night.
What is notable, and might not be a coincidence, that is that it comes just after the streaming service, Netflix, released a provocative new movie on this very subject.
[Cuts to clip]
(…)
[Cuts back to live]
PSAKI: So that’s the trailer for the Netflix movie [A] House of Dynamite, which portrays a nightmare scenario in which the United States is revealed to be far more vulnerable to a nuclear attack than many would like to believe. That movie is, of course, a work of fiction. And yet, the Pentagon was reportedly so anxious over that film, they issued an internal memo arguing all the ways that the doomsday scenario depicted in the movie isn’t accurate. So clearly that movie struck a nerve inside the Trump administration. Could it have gotten under Trump’s skin, too? Could it have prompted, let’s say, a surprise announcement post about resuming nuclear tests? We don’t know.
What we do know is that the whole point is having — of having a nuclear arsenal is deterrence, when our nuclear strike capacity is what insurance America’s enemies think twice before taking action against us. And yet, today, Vice President JD Vance seems so intent on justifying the need for nuclear tests, the ones his boss announced he wants to do, so determined to defend Trump’s decision that he actually suggested that America’s nuclear weapons may not be functioning properly.
[Cuts to clip]
VICE PRES. JD VANCE [on 10/30/25]: I think the President’s truth speaks for itself. We have a big arsenal, obviously. The Russians have a large nuclear arsenal. The Chinese have a large nuclear arsenal. Sometimes you’ve gotta test it to make sure that it’s functioning and working properly.
[Cuts back to live]
PSAKI: Wait a minute. You’re not sure that it’s functioning properly? I mean, the last thing any member of any administration should do is cast doubt on America’s nuclear capability. But that’s exactly what the Vice President just seemed to do. And Vance seemed to realize that in real time, because just a second later, he walked it back.
[Cuts to clip]
VANCE [on 10/30/25]: To be clear, we know that it does work properly, but you got to keep on top of it over time.
[Cuts back to live]
PSAKI: Okay. So now our nuclear arsenal does work properly. Okay. That was all in one statement. Look, we have no legitimate reason to believe that there are any problems with America’s nuclear capacity. Even the Vice President walked his earlier statement back. But we have every reason to question how seriously this administration takes its responsibility when it comes to nukes.
Remember, this is the same President who accidentally fired and then had to rehire all the members of the agency that oversees the safety of nuclear warheads in this country, and then furloughed more than 1,000 workers from another nuclear safety agency during the government shutdown. So, what should we make of this President’s sudden decision to start testing our nuclear arsenal, or his desire to, I guess? I’ve just the person to ask. Retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling joins me here right after a quick break.
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