To order a nuclear strike, the president must simply place a call to the Pentagon, verify his or her identity, and specify a target from a pre-existing “menu” of strike options carried inside the “football.”

100 Seconds to Midnight

With Putin rattling his nuclear saber and Trump back on the campaign trail, even battle-hardened generals are gripped with atomic anxiety

By Rebecca John

At noon on January 20, 2021, Donald Trump’s nuclear codes went dead. Around the world, atomic experts breathed a sigh of relief.

The last weeks of the Trump administration had seen the president impeached for “incitement of insurrection” and banned from Twitter, yet he remained the only person in the U.S. with the authority to launch a nuclear attack.