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.
