While Donald Trump boasted about his « nuclear button, » the president doesn’t actually have a physical button.
My button is bigger than yours.
President Donald Trump, reacting to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un saying he had a » nuclear button on his desk » and was ready to use it against the United States, said on Twitter late Tuesday that his own nuclear button « is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works! »
In a televised speech Monday, Kim had said: « The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, and a nuclear button is always on my desk. This is reality, not a threat. »
While Trump boasted about his « nuclear button, » the president doesn’t actually have a physical one.
The process for launching a nuclear strike is secret and complex and involves the use of a nuclear « football, » which is carried by a rotating group of military officers everywhere the president goes and is equipped with communication tools and a book with prepared war plans.
If the president were to order a strike, he would identify himself to military officials at the Pentagon with codes unique to him. Those codes are recorded on a card known as the « biscuit » that is carried by the president at all times. He would then transmit the launch order to the Pentagon and Strategic Command.
The fiery rhetoric comes as representatives from North and South Korea could meet for the first official discussions between the neighbors since 2015 ahead of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
