• American presidents are accompanied by a military aide carrying a briefcase with the tools necessary for nuclear war.
  • During presidential inaugurations, nuclear command authority and the “nuclear football,” as the briefcase is called, are transferred to the new president.
  • But President Donald Trump says he will not participate in President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, which could complicate the transfer.
  • So what happens to the “nuclear football” that accompanies the president if Trump doesn’t show? How does it get to Biden?
  • “That’s a good question,” Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons expert at the Federation of American Scientists, told Insider. “It is an unprecedented situation.” In the nuclear age, no president has skipped their elected successor’s inauguration.
  • If Trump is not at the inauguration, then the transfer process will be different.  

Source: businessinsider.com

  • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she spoke to Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley about precautions that could block President Trump from “ordering a nuclear strike” or accessing launch codes and starting military hostilities.

Source: cnbc.co