Help Prevent President Trump from Starting a Nuclear War in 10 Minutes

As of January 20, Donald Trump has sole authority to launch a US nuclear attack and may be forced to make that decision under extreme time pressure. It's time to change this deeply flawed system.

The United States keeps its 400 land-based nuclear missiles on hair-trigger alert so they can be launched within a matter of minutes if US sensors warn of an incoming Russian attack. This system gives the president roughly 10 minutes to decide whether to launch these missiles before they could be destroyed by incoming warheads. False alarms have plagued the system in the past — leading to the risk of an accidental or inadvertent launch.

Because of this extreme time pressure, the system is designed so that the launch decision — arguably the biggest decision in history—is made by a single person.

Everywhere President Trump goes, he will be followed by a military officer carrying a briefcase containing communications equipment and descriptions of nuclear attack options he would need to order a launch.

To order a launch, the president would call the commanding officer in the Pentagon war room, who would confirm that the instructions came from the president and then send an encrypted launch order — about the length of a tweet — to the crews who launch the land- and sea-based missiles.

Of course, the president could also order a nuclear launch even if no attack was detected. And no one has the authority to stop the president from ordering such an attack.

This system is crazy, and it must be changed — no matter who is sitting in the Oval Office.

There is no need to make a launch decision quickly or to keep missiles on hair-trigger alert since US submarine-based missiles are invulnerable to attack and provide a strong deterrent. Removing this artificial time pressure will also remove the rationale for giving the president the sole authority to launch nuclear weapons. Instead, the United States can establish a process to involve more people in any decision to use nuclear weapons.

Our focus must be on changing the system itself. To do that, we need to convince US policymakers that maintaining the current system is too risky.

Write today to urge your senators to work to change the system that allows one person — the president — to order a nuclear attack that could end civilization as we know it.