Did Trump Try to Use Nuclear Codes? No Evidence to Back Viral Claim
www.newsweek.com

... A viral claim alleging that President Donald Trump attempted to "use nuclear codes" during a heated Saturday night meeting on the Iran crisis is circulating across platforms, despite a lack of evidence. A White House spokesperson told Newsweek the claim was false and criticized its circulation. Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.

The claim originates from comments made by former CIA officer Larry Johnson during an April 20 appearance on Judging Freedom, a podcast and YouTube talk show hosted by former Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano. Johnson alleged that an emergency session at the White House turned confrontational when General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reportedly stood his ground against a presidential directive.

What Larry Johnson Said

According to Johnson, the exchange was "apparently quite a blowup," resulting in General Caine allegedly refusing to facilitate the use of "the so-called, nuclear codes." As evidence, the podcast featured footage of Caine walking on White House grounds with his head down. Later in the episode Napolitano shows footage of the general walking outside on the White House grounds with his head down.

However, Newsweek has found no independent corroboration of this exchange. While high-level meetings did take place on April 18 to discuss the expiration of the Iran ceasefire, no credible news organization or government official has verified that nuclear launch authority was ever invoked. ...

Trump could win back the nuclear codes. Biden should put guardrails on the nuclear arsenal -- now. (2024)
thebulletin.org

... On January 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump inspired a mob attack on the US Capitol to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to the Biden administration. Not only was this an unprecedented attack on American democracy, but it represented a serious national security threat. Many saw and see this as one of many examples of an unstable President Trump acting in dangerous, irrational ways. And throughout his time in office, Trump"like all presidents in the nuclear age"had the unilateral authority to launch the US nuclear arsenal.

At any moment, Trump could literally have ended the world with a phone call. Congressional approval is not needed, and the secretary of defense cannot stop a presidential order to unleash the US nuclear arsenal. The system is built for speed, not deliberation. The whole process, from presidential order to the launch of one or hundreds of nuclear warheads, would take just minutes.

The danger that Trump would do something catastrophic was so acute that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi desperately looked for ways to prevent the "unstable president from ... accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike," according to a letter Pelosi wrote in January 2021 to House Democrats in the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley was convinced that Trump had suffered "serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election" and took the extraordinary step of ordering his staff to come to him if they received a nuclear strike order from the president. "No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I'm part of that procedure," Milley reportedly told the officers. "You never know what a president's trigger point is." ...