Despite attempts from his secretary of State to cool down the escalating exchange of threats between the White House and North Korea, Donald Trump and his surrogates seem determined to keep the temperature high. After doubling down on his incendiary threat to direct “fire and fury” toward North Korea, saying that “maybe it wasn’t tough enough,” Trump went a step further, announcing on Twitter $TWTR that the US is ready to repel a North Korean attack:
The US president also retweeted pictures shared by the US Pacific Command showing aircraft ready for an eventual #FightTonight mission, “if called upon to do so.”
The situation has left “Trump antics” territory and crossed solidly into the scary zone. But does the commander in chief have the power to launch a war on his own—perhaps via Twitter? That’s a more complicated question than it might seem.
The so-called War Powers Clause of the constitution says that only once war has been declared by Congress can the president lead the military into it. However, the president does have the authority to order a nuclear attack, not only in retaliation but also as a preemptive measure (pdf, p.1) to stop an attack on US territories. The system in place for deploying the US’s more than 7,000 nuclear warheads was developed during the cold war and rests on a core element: The president, and only the president, has the authority to authorize a strike, and nobody can legally veto him.
Still, that doesn’t mean his decision will get carried out without question or that the chain of command can’t interfere. This is how the president would launch an attack, according to assorted published reports. (Spoiler: Twitter is not involved.)
All this, however, is in theory. Whether or not the many people involved in launching a military attack would cooperate with an impulsive presidential decision remains to be seen—and hopefully, never will be.
