A former CIA officer has claimed that Donald Trump asked “to use the nuclear codes” in a fiery White House meeting on Iran, amid mounting concerns over the President’s state of mind, and safeguards around the use of nuclear weapons.
Larry Johnson, who also served as a top counter-terror official, told former Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano on his podcast that Trump made the request during a discussion with senior officials including War Secretary, Pete Hegseth, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, on 18 April.
Citing unspecified reports of the meeting, Johnson claimed that Caine “invoked his privilege as head of the military” to refuse Trump’s request, leading to “quite the blow up”. He showed footage of Caine apparently “storming out” of the building.
US news outlets reported that top officials including Caine and Hegseth, as well as Vice-President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, were present at the White House on Saturday night.
But the rest of the account remains unverified, and a White House spokesperson said the claim was false and criticised its circulation.
Neither Caine nor anyone else has the power to block such a request from Trump. A US President has sole authority over the use of nuclear weapons, which has become an increasingly pressing issue for Trump’s opponents and nuclear analysts after a series of erratic foreign policy moves.
Presidential powers
President Richard Nixon reportedly threatened to use nuclear weapons during impeachment proceedings (Photo: The White House/Getty)A president’s power to use weapons of mass destruction has vexed policymakers for decades, with some cases of White House staff seeking to introduce safeguards.
During President Richard Nixon’s impeachment process in 1974, a time when he was drinking heavily, the commander-in-chief reportedly said: “I can go back into my office and pick up the telephone and in 25 minutes 70 million people will be dead.”
Nixon’s defence secretary, James Schlesinger, is said to have ordered military chiefs to ensure that any “emergency order” from the President should go through him or Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. But neither would have possessed the power to veto such an order.
An overview of the US protocol for nuclear weapons use by Middlebury Institute, the leading US university for nuclear research, shows that the president’s order cannot be blocked by the defence secretary or other senior official, and could even be issued directly to lower-level commanders.
To give the order, a president would use an identification card, known as the “cookie”, or Sealed Authenticator System (SAS) card. They would then be presented with a list of strike options contained in a “nuclear football” kept close at all times by an aide.
Through a system of secure communications, the decision would be transmitted to the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon, where an officer would authenticate the order as coming from the president.
The order would then be converted into a code made up of letters and numbers about 150 characters long that includes a confirmation the order is legitimate, details of the attack plan, and codes to unlock and launch missiles.
At the end of the process, the Middlebury overview states that “the captain of a nuclear-armed submarine and his executive officer would open a double safe – requiring that both enter their own combination – containing an SAS card as well as the ‘fire control’ key used to launch the weapons.”
Dr Jon Wolfstahl, who served as the top official for nuclear weapons and proliferation under President Barack Obama, said the president’s authority is near-total – and has expanded under Trump.
“The bottom line is the president as commander in chief under the constitution, during a war has very broad authority, including the use of nuclear weapons,” he told The i Paper, but added that staff could raise concerns over legal issues.
“There are constraints over the use of force … including the requirement that it be discriminatory and proportional. In the past, that meant a president could not use a nuclear weapon whenever they wanted, but Trump’s lawyers argue that he has completely unfettered authority and it’s unlikely that a court or military officer would jump in and try to stop him.”
‘No one person should have that power’
Trump is said to have alarmed White House staff with erratic behaviour during a mission to save a pilot lost in Iran (Photo: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps/Anadolu/Getty Images)Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced legislation seeking to curb the President’s absolute power over nuclear weapons, pointing to his unpredictable decision-making.
House Democrat Scott Peters, who has tabled a bill calling for a nuclear order to be certified by the defence secretary – barring emergency scenarios such as an enemy nuclear strike – noted the recent attack on Venezuela and seizure of its President Nicolas Maduro in an article for The Hill.
“Recently the administration captured a foreign leader, which should remind elected members and the public how quickly decisions of national security can occur,” he wrote.
Another bill introduced by Senate Democrats would require a president to seek Congressional authorisation to use nuclear weapons, excepting a short list of emergency wartime scenarios.
An assessment by nuclear specialists at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists argued that neither measure is likely to pass due to a lack of Republican support, but argued that Trump could make himself a “global hero” by adopting a form of the “two person rule”.
“Over time, many concerned experts and government officials have suggested variations on what should be a self-evident truth: No one person should have the power—what is often called the ‘sole authority’—to end human civilization,” they added.
Trump has raised alarm with recent statements threatening to destroy Iranian civilisation, and “make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back as a nation again”, which some analysts interpreted as a veiled nuclear threat.
“There are very serious, sober people in the US who are convinced the president was suggesting nuclear options are on the table,” said Wolfsthal.
Trump has also raised the prospect of reintroducing nuclear testing in response to suspected Chinese and Russian proliferation. His behaviour behind closed doors is said to have alarmed White House staff during the Iran war, with a Wall Street Journal report claiming military officials kept him out of the Situation Room during a mission to rescue a pilot behind enemy lines after he “screamed at aides for hours”.
Wolfsthal believes that safeguards are required, but suggests that the House bill that could ultimately require authorisation to come from a Trump loyalist, like Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, would be ineffective.
Instead, he suggests, senior military officials in the chain of command should have legal training and be able to “ensure that any use of nuclear weapons meets the constraints and requirements of law”.
They could then offer conventional alternative options to meet a military objective, and at least give Congress a chance to intervene by “slowing down” the process leading to a nuclear attack.
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