New Delhi [India], May 15 (ANI): Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson told ANI that US President Donald Trump asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine whether nuclear weapons could be used, and that Caine firmly said no.
Johnson said he had reported what a source told him and then conducted further checks. He clarified that the president holds the nuclear codes, but added that Trump was seriously entertaining the idea of using a nuclear weapon and asked about it. According to Johnson, General Caine ‘absolutely’ refused and stopped the proposal.
‘It wasn’t so much a battle over the codes because the reality is the president holds the codes,’ Johnson said. ‘Trump was seriously entertaining and asking about the use of a nuclear weapon. And General Caine, to his credit, said, absolutely not. Very firm. So there was the issue of nuclear use discussed.’
Johnson said that after Caine rejected the idea, Trump later told the media there would be no nuclear use. ‘It was shot down by General Caine, and that’s the reason that Donald Trump later came out and admitted in the meeting, no, no, no, we’re never going to use a nuke. Good. Got that off the table,’ Johnson said.
He outlined how the legal and operational chain would work if a president ordered a nuclear strike: the president holds the codes, but the order would route to the general commanding STRATCOM and is typically processed through the secretary of defense — Johnson referred to ‘Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, now’ in his remarks. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs is the president’s senior military advisor and is not in the direct chain that can legally overrule a president, but can advise strongly and, Johnson added, might resign if the president attempted to proceed against his advice.
‘The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is not in that chain of command where he can overrule the president. But his advice, he’s there to advise the president, and he said, no, bad idea, don’t do it,’ Johnson said. He suggested that if a president insisted, resignations by senior military leaders could follow.
Johnson warned of the wider risks of using nuclear weapons, saying it would make the United States a pariah and raise the chance of further nuclear confrontations with countries such as Russia, China and North Korea. He also noted the danger for regional rivals like India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed neighbors.
The remarks come as Trump, in a separate appearance near Air Force One, said he had rejected Iran’s latest proposal because it did not guarantee ‘no nuclear’ material. He told reporters he ‘threw it away’ after reading an unacceptable first sentence, arguing that any amount of nuclear material was unacceptable and that a 20-year limit must be real, not ‘fake.’
On the issue he has called ‘nuclear dust,’ Trump said Iran told him it lacks the equipment to remove certain material and that only China or the US could do it. ‘With that being said, I want to get it. They agreed to it, but then they took it back. They’ll agree to it eventually,’ he said. (ANI)
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