THERE IS NO SEPARATION OF POWERS IN A NUCLEAR STRIKE

Washington, D.C., January 20, 2017: On Inauguration Day, there was a transfer of power from the outgoing president, Barack Obama, to his successor. The ceremony began at noon, and a short time later the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts swore in the new president, Donald Trump, making him commander in chief of the nation’s armed forces. At the same time, a black briefcase officially changed hands: the “nuclear football” that contains the codes that give the commander in chief the ability to send human civilization back to the Stone Age. From that moment on, Trump had the power to order the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. If the president were to order a nuclear strike, there would be no separation of powers—no vote in Congress, no veto from America’s generals: It would take about as much time to trigger a nuclear holocaust as it takes to tweet a message from the White House.