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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat Exactly Would It Mean to Have Trump’s Finger on the Nuclear Button?
A nuclear launch expert plays out the various scenarios.
By Bruce Blair
June 11, 2016
Donald Trump, December 15, 2015: The biggest problem we have is nuclearnuclear proliferation and having some maniac, having some madman go out and get a nuclear weapon. That's in my opinion that is the single biggest problem that our country faces right now.
Hillary Clinton, June 2, 2016: This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes. Its not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin.
To a degree we havent seen, perhaps, since the candidacy of Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964, the question of Donald Trumps temperament and judgment on matters of war and peace is stirring attentionand trepidation, particularly when the subject of nuclear weapons comes up. Some people believe that Trump himself is the maniac, the madman with nukes that appears in Trumps own worst nightmare. And its not just Trumps general-election opponent, Hillary Clinton, whos hinting at this; his former GOP rival, Marco Rubio, repeated his earlier concerns about Trump only this week, saying America can't give "the nuclear codes of the United States to an erratic individual." Others would side with Trumps view that the weapons themselveswhich pack a destructive force amounting to Hiroshima times a thousand, as he put itare the evil. But these points are not mutually exclusive.
What would it mean to have Trumps fingers on the nuclear button? We don't really know, but we do know this: In the atomic age, when decisions must be made very quickly, the presidency has evolved into something akin to a nuclear monarchy. With a single phone call, the commander in chief has virtually unlimited power to rain down nuclear weapons on any adversarial regime and country at any time. You might imagine this awesome executive power would be hamstrung with checks and balances, but by law, custom and congressional deference there may be no responsibility where the president has more absolute control. There is no advice and consent by the Senate. There is no second-guessing by the Supreme Court. Even ordering the use of torturewhich Trump infamously once said he would do, insisting the military wont refuse. Theyre not gonna refuse meimposes more legal constraints on a president than ordering a nuclear attack.
If he were president, Donald Trumpwho likes to say he doesn't spend a lot of time conferring with others ("My primary consultant is myself," he declared in March)would be free to launch a civilization-ending nuclear war on his own any time he chose.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/2016-donald-trump-nuclear-weapons-missiles-nukes-button-launch-foreign-policy-213955#ixzz4BswGVA3U
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potone
(1,701 posts)His fingers are too short to press the button all the way down.