--- title: Donald Trump a "Clear Danger": Ex-Nuclear Launch Officers description: In an open letter to Congress, 17 former nuclear launch offers warned President Trump's nuclear authority is "a clear and present danger." canonical: https://time.com/5100301/nuclear-launch-officers-letter-donald-trump-danger/ author: Eli Meixler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-12T06:26:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:51:26.405Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Is "a Clear and Present Danger": Nuclear Officers og:description: 17 former U.S. nuclear launch officers have written an open letter to Congress og:url: https://time.com/5100301/nuclear-launch-officers-letter-donald-trump-danger/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt659502bf0d56adde/6988f8078fd2ee613d35a4ff/gettyimages-903962182.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3900 og:image:height: 2194 og:image:alt: White House - Washington, DC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Is "a Clear and Present Danger": Nuclear Officers twitter:description: 17 former U.S. nuclear launch officers have written an open letter to Congress twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt659502bf0d56adde/6988f8078fd2ee613d35a4ff/gettyimages-903962182.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Group of Former Nuclear Launch Officers Calls President Trump 'A Clear and Present Danger' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Eli Meixler](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Jan 12, 2018 6:26 AM UTC  President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 11, 2018. President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 11, 2018. Matt McClain—The Washington Post/Getty Images by [Eli Meixler](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Jan 12, 2018 6:26 AM UTC U.S. President Donald Trump’s readiness to threaten the use of America’s nuclear arsenal has unnerved diplomats and academics and [inflamed tensions with North Korea](http://time.com/5085997/north-korea-donald-trump-war/) over the first year of his presidency. Now former nuclear missile launch operators are adding themselves to the list of concerned observers. In an [open letter to Congress](https://globalzero.org/files/missileer%5Fstatement%5Fjan%5F2018%5F17.pdf) on Thursday, a group of 17 former nuclear launch officers argued that President Trump “poses a clear and present danger to the country and the world” and warned that “there are no reliable safeguards” to prevent Trump from deciding to launch a nuclear missile on his own. The letter was published by international nuclear disarmament advocacy group [Global Zero](https://www.globalzero.org/), and [follows a similar letter](http://time.com/4531271/nuclear-launch-officers-open-letter-donald-trump/) written at the close of the 2016 presidential election. Trump’s “inflammatory rhetoric has put the United States on a collision course with North Korea,” the new letter says, citing a recent exchange in which [Trump boasted that his “nuclear button”](http://time.com/5085367/donald-trump-north-korea-nuclear-button-tweet/) is “bigger and more powerful” than North Korea’s. “Threats of [‘fire and fury’](http://time.com/4893220/trump-fire-fury-truman-rain-ruin/) and total destruction of the Kim dictatorship undercut diplomatic efforts and increase the likelihood of stumbling into conflict,” the officers wrote. **Read more**: [_Former Nuclear Launch Officers Pen Letter Against Donald Trump_](http://time.com/4531271/nuclear-launch-officers-open-letter-donald-trump/) Although there is no literal “nuclear button,” the president does hold a the [unique and singular authority to order a nuclear strike](http://time.com/5085723/nuke-button-donald-trump-nuclear-weapons-north-korea/). The officers mention several “common-sense” proposals currently in Congress that would limit Trump’s ability to unilaterally deploy a nuclear weapon without the approval of the Defense Secretary, Attorney General, or Congress. In Nov., a rare Senate Foreign Relations Committee [discussed the nuclear chain of command](http://time.com/5024035/donald-trump-nuclear-weapons-authority/) after [Trump warned](http://time.com/4926103/donald-trump-north-korea-bomb-test/) North Korea that any attack would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5100301/nuclear-launch-officers-letter-donald-trump-danger/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5100301/nuclear-launch-officers-letter-donald-trump-danger/"},"headline":"A Group of Former Nuclear Launch Officers Calls President Trump 'A Clear and Present Danger'","datePublished":"2018-01-12T06:26:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:51:26.405Z","description":"Trump's \"inflammatory rhetoric has put the United States on a collision course with North Korea,\" they wrote","url":"https://time.com/5100301/nuclear-launch-officers-letter-donald-trump-danger/","keywords":["Defense","North Korea","Kim Jong Un","Nuclear Weapons","Donald Trump","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt659502bf0d56adde/6988f8078fd2ee613d35a4ff/gettyimages-903962182.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eli Meixler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eli/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt659502bf0d56adde/6988f8078fd2ee613d35a4ff/gettyimages-903962182.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"White House - Washington, DC","caption":"White House - Washington, DC","creditText":"Matt McClain—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/defense/","name":"Defense"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5100301/nuclear-launch-officers-letter-donald-trump-danger/","name":"A Group of Former Nuclear Launch Officers Calls President Trump 'A Clear and Present Danger'"}}]}] ```