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A US president has the power to unilaterally launch the nuclear arsenal:

https://allthingsnuclear.org/dwright/trump-and-the-nuclear-c...

Whether the military would actually carry out those orders when no one else has ICBMs in the air is debatable, but the president's defined role as the commander-in-chief and the sole arbiter of when to open the gates of hell on earth is not.



> Whether the military would actually carry out those orders when no one else has ICBMs in the air is debatable

It's not merely debatable, it's highly debatable. People aren't just going to launch nuclear weapons willy nilly, no matter who the president is, muchless for Donald J. Trump, who few people in his administration take seriously.

Trump couldn't even get Mark Esper to deploy troops domestically. Now imagine the hurdles he'd face trying to deploy troops to another country.


I hope Trump wouldn't actually be able to nuke anyone while throwing a fit, and I think it's unlikely that he could.

It is important to remember how the US launch system actually works, though, and that it's theoretically possible he could.




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