Here’s What Would Actually Happen If President Trump Ordered A Nuclear Attack

One of the criticisms leveled at Republican nominee Donald Trump during this election campaign is that he has a “laissez-faire” attitude towards nuclear weapons.

He has refused to rule out using them in Europe for example, and at one point was in favour of Japan acquiring nukes.

Trump’s rival Hilary Clinton also has trust issues when it comes to nukes – in a recent poll 46 per cent of Americans said they didn’t trust Clinton to make the right decisions with nuclear weapons.

Access to the “nuclear codes” is the most terrifying power available to the president, but how easy is it for him or her to actually authorize a nuclear strike?

Here’s what would happen if Trump or Clinton decided to press the button.

The nuclear ‘football’

The president is constantly be accompanied by an aide carrying a black leather suitcase.

Known as the ‘football’, within the box is communications equipment to contact America’s nuclear forces - on submarines, in bombers and on launch sites around the world.

If the president decides to launch (when they are away from command centres such as the White House), he or she will be taken aside by the aide to discuss options.

To activate it, Trump or Clinton will need a card - known as ‘the biscuit’ - which identifies who they are and authorises them to order single or multiple nuclear weapon launches.

Who authorises the attack?

If a president were to give the order to attack, no one can countermand it - the military will simply check the codes, and fire.

The order has to be ratified by the Secretary for Defense, to confirm that it’s real - but this is to confirm the president’s identity, rather than to confirm that the order is a good idea.

In 2008, then-Vice President Dick Cheney said of the then-President that, ‘He doesn’t have to check with anybody. He doesn’t have to call the Congress.

‘He doesn’t have to check with the courts. He has that authority because of the nature of the world we live in.’

Could military officers refuse their orders?

Former CIA director General Michael Hayden has already suggested that the military might refuse to obey Trump’s orders if he ordered the torture of suspected terrorists.

Hayden said, ‘If he were to order that once in government, the American armed forces would refuse to act.

But even if military officers refused to obey the order to launch, it’s by no means clear it would prevent an attack.

Major Harold Hering posed the question, ‘How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane President?’ in 1973.

He was discharged from the military.

What if the president was ruled insane?

Scarily, even if those around a president believed he or she was insane, there’s a good chance they could still launch a nuclear attack.

Secretary of Defence James Schlesinger was at one point so concerned about President Nixon’s behaviour he asked military chiefs to refer to him if Nixon issued any ‘unusual orders’ regarding nuclear attack.

But journalist Ron Rosenbaum - author of ‘How the End Begins’ - suggests that it might be impossible to stop a ‘rogue’ president.

Rosenbaum writes, ‘Can he launch despite displaying symptoms of imbalance? Is there anything to stop him?’

Rosenbaum suggests that most of the fail-safes around nuclear launch are designed to confirm a president’s identity, not his sanity.

Where would the missiles go?

The president would be presented with a range of strike options - from a single nuclear missile up to an all-out attack.

The targets would be based on the U.S military’s highly classified OPLAN documents - offering several ‘strike options’ against states thought to be armed with nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction.

Presidents can customise the list of targets - and the weapons used to strike them, from America’s ‘triad’ of nuclear forces (bombers, submarines and missiles).

What would happen

Designed to be basically unstoppable, intercontinental thermonuclear missiles could destroy cities on the far side of the globe in minutes.

Any nuclear conflict would bring about instant, catastrophic change to our world.

The Arms Control Association says, ‘United States and Russia still deploy more than 1,500 strategic warheads on several hundred bombers and missiles - far more than necessary to deter nuclear attack - and they are modernizing their nuclear delivery systems.

‘If these weapons were used even in a “limited” way, the result would be catastrophic nuclear devastation.’