National security

Why Trump Is Right to Raise Questions About Nuclear Weapons

Among the novel notions that have tumbled casually from Donald Trump’s mouth in recent months is this rather unnerving observation about nuclear weapons: “If we have them, why can’t we use them?” he reportedly said. At another point Trump declared: "Somebody hits us within ISIS, you wouldn’t fight back with a nuke?" He was excoriated by the experts, of course—including by a former Minuteman missile launch officer who wrote in The Los Angeles Times that although he was a lifelong Republican he was terrified that Trump might become president. I myself (a former Minuteman launch officer as well) have warned that in an era when decision-making has been reduced to seconds the president has virtually unlimited powers to fire off nuclear weapons—there is no advice-and-consent by the Senate, no constitutional constraints or other real check—and a President Trump “would be free to launch a civilization-ending nuclear war on his own any time he chose.”