Words are not just words, NOT when they threaten nuclear armageddon. Millions of innocent lives are at stake because of what Donald Trump said on Twitter.
North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018
From Axios’ Mike Allen: “The Danger here is that Kim is also an unpredictable actor, and not one fully understood by U.S. Intelligence. As one adviser to the West Wing told me: “This is the most important issue on the president’s desk. We are in a hair-trigger environment and this is potentially a shooting war with nuclear risk.”
From CNN’s Brian Stelter: “There is a word for this. Madness. This is madness. Fresh off his holiday vacation, President Trump tweeted sixteen times Tuesday.”
The implications of what the President is saying are huge. If we take it literally (which we have to remember Kim Jong Un may be doing), we have to wonder:
How are the military stationed in the Korean peninsula, and their families, reacting to all this?
How are the people in North Korea feeling? Sure, not many people would care if Kim Jong Un was wiped out, but a nuclear weapon could kill millions of innocent people. Do the people in North Korea deserve to die, just because they have a maniac leading the country? Flip that sentence and imagine North Korea nuking the U.S.
Remember: every time Trump tweets about nuclear war, he's discussing human bodies—the bodies of men, women and kids—being incinerated in an instant, followed by an untold number of agonizing deaths in a long nuclear winter.
Think about that when he tweets. Really think about it. pic.twitter.com/w4EAEapjca
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) January 3, 2018
Then we have to look at the facts. Does Trump really have the power to launch a nuclear weapon with the touch of a button? The answer is no, but the President can set a nuclear attack in motion. As the New York Times reports today, “The president does not need approval from anyone else, including Congress or the military, to authorize a strike.”
Thankfully there is no actual #NuclearButton that @POTUS can just press. It's a process that requires the Secretary of Defense to execute the nuclear order. That's why we should all be praying for James Mattis to have good health, wisdom and rationality.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 3, 2018
But can Trump’s staff be trusted? Will they be loyal to him if he asks for the unthinkable? And what about the Republican leadership? So far, crickets. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan are silent. Not a word from Senator John McCain, either. Where is the outrage over this statement and over the mental health and stability of the President?
A rational leader would not write that tweet. No one on his national security team believes he is a rational leader. Now Trump is threatening nuclear war. https://t.co/B9X6SlIbzj
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) January 3, 2018
This needs to be discussed by the leadership now. What are they waiting for?
I would remind Republican leaders that they have an obligation to put the safety and security of the country over their loyalty the president. But as Trump pushes the nation closer to nuclear war, they only seem interested in delivering tax cuts for their wealthy donors.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) January 3, 2018
