![]() ![]() “Should the President be in Florida, on the golf course, it is possible for him to initiate a nuclear action should that be appropriate.” “There’s always somebody within reach of the President at any time, normally with a very sophisticated laptop,” Mr Beaver says. The departure of Esper, originally brought into the cabinet as yet another loyalist – he had previously worked as a lobbyist for arms manufacturers – and the relative lack of standing of his replacement, Christopher C Miller, means that the last hurdle between Trump and the doomsday command has been removed.If the prints scan, the keys turn and the codewords match, however, it’s true that the Commander-in-Chief, which is one of the roles of the US President, is the one who makes the decision to initiate a nuclear strike. And the Trump cabinet has an overwhelming majority of his supporters, apparently selected more for their personal loyalty to him than their expertise or backbone. Nobody thinks that Pence would defy Trump in this way. Section four of the 25th amendment to the US constitution would allow Pence to do this, but he would require the unanimous support of the cabinet. The only other person who could prevent the president from ordering a nuclear attack would be Vice President Mike Pence, through the indirect means of declaring Trump to be insane and removing him from office. The president retains ultimate and sole control because he can sack the defence secretary in the event of disagreement. But if the defence secretary objects he can be over-ruled. The US president is required to consult with his defence secretary before making a decision to fire nuclear weapons. Donald Trump’s decision to fire Defence Secretary Mark Esper on Tuesday removed one of the final barriers between the president and his ability to launch the US arsenal of nuclear missiles on his own authority without consultation and perhaps even without warning.
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