This Won’t Change Under A Monarchy
By The US President has sole authority to launch nuclear missiles. “Sole authority” is the official phrase, and it means what it says. Only the President can give the order to launch nuclear missiles, and he is not restricted in any way. He does not have to consult with anyone else. A military aide follows him everywhere with a 45-pound briefcase, “the football,” that contains everything he needs to do it. If you want to sue him afterwards, well, you’ll have to find a court and judge in the smoking ruins.
Vladimir Putin has been wielding nuclear threats to try to make things go his way in Ukraine. President Joe Biden’s responses have been measured. Certainly we haven’t worried that Biden would set nuclear war in motion.
Let’s think back to 2017-2021, when Donald Trump was President. President Biden doesn’t tweet, but Trump did. He got into it with that fellow he exchanged love letters with.
And then Iran.
Perhaps Trump was bluffing. But at one of his briefings he asked why we had nuclear weapons if we don’t use them.
Unlike a great many other things, we don’t have to worry that President Trump’s sole nuclear authority would be worse under the Supreme Court’s immunity decision. Only as bad as it was the first time around.