The president of the United States has the sole authority and power to launch the nation’s nuclear weapons. Think about that for a moment.
Donald Trump’s emotional, erratic, and unhinged behavior during his first term poses a grave threat to our national security. He has driven uncertainty to an aspect of the presidency that requires predictability: the global nuclear balance. This alone renders Trump dangerously unfit to serve as commander in chief.
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But today’s Trump is not the same man he was, even just since he left office in 2021. He is more and more detached from reality. In recent months, Trump has spoken publicly about the “late, great Hannibal Lecter,” and told a bizarre story about asking a ship manufacturer whether it was better to be electrocuted by a battery or eaten by a shark.
Even more concerning, he freely describes vengeance and dictatorship as the keys to his second term.
If voters elect Trump in November, the entertainment value of his bombastic nonsense will immediately fade. His frequent gibberish and observable mental decline would disqualify him if he were Lt. Trump, charged with the most minor of duties maintaining America’s nuclear arsenal. The fact that he could once again have the power to unilaterally initiate a nuclear strike should put fear in all our hearts.
Read the full op-ed, published July 19, 2024, in The Philapdelphia Inquirer.