--- title: Donald Trump Will Inherit the "Nuclear Football" Briefcase description: At exactly 12:00 p.m. on Jan. 20, Donald Trump will be inheriting a whole lot of power — nuclear power. canonical: https://time.com/4626717/donald-trump-nuclear-football/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-06T22:28:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:36:03.104Z article:section: Politics og:title: This is the 'Nuclear Football' That Donald Trump Will Soon Inherit og:description: It all comes down to one briefcase og:url: https://time.com/4626717/donald-trump-nuclear-football/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e657bd8a17ed564/6988b440656a3fcd19bce45a/donald-trump-north-korea.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. President-elect Trump delivered brief remarks to reporters at the Mar-a-lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This is the 'Nuclear Football' That Donald Trump Will Soon Inherit twitter:description: It all comes down to one briefcase twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e657bd8a17ed564/6988b440656a3fcd19bce45a/donald-trump-north-korea.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This is the 'Nuclear Football' That Donald Trump Will Inherit by [Diana Pearl / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Diana Pearl / People Jan 6, 2017 10:28 PM UTC  U.S. President-elect Donald Trump delivered brief remarks to reporters at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 28, 2016. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump delivered brief remarks to reporters at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 28, 2016.Jonathan Ernst—Reuters by [Diana Pearl / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Diana Pearl / People Jan 6, 2017 10:28 PM UTC At exactly 12:00 p.m. on Jan. 20, [Donald Trump](http://people.com/tag/donald-trump/) will be inheriting a whole lot of power — nuclear power. And the crux of it is held in one secretive briefcase. Weighing 45 pounds, the aluminum briefcase covered in black leather is called the president’s “emergency satchel” — and is nicknamed the “nuclear football.” Inside it holds the president’s control over the nation’s nuclear arsenal. And in two weeks it will be in Trump’s hands. In _Transition of Power: The Presidency_, a new original special on History that examines the presidential hand-over process, viewers get a closer look at this “nuclear football” — and the power it holds. According to the video, the briefcase has been carried by presidential aides and members of the military since the Eisenhower administration, though it’s rarely seen by the public as it (intentionally) blends into the sea of briefcases those surrounding the president carry. The transfer between presidents is rarely discussed, though the football will inevitably follow the commander in chief wherever he goes. As historian Allan Lichtman says in the special: “It is the mechanism by which the president can launch a nuclear attack.” However, though it’s not often discussed, the football isn’t a top government secret: There’s currently an emptied, “retired” football on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. _Transition of Power: The Presidency_ airs this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on History. _This_ [_article_](http://people.com/politics/a-rare-look-at-the-nuclear-football-that-trump-will-take-control-of-on-jan-20/) _originally appeared on_ [_People.com_](http://www.people.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4626717/donald-trump-nuclear-football/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4626717/donald-trump-nuclear-football/"},"headline":"This is the 'Nuclear Football' That Donald Trump Will Inherit","datePublished":"2017-01-06T22:28:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:36:03.104Z","description":"It all comes down to one briefcase","url":"https://time.com/4626717/donald-trump-nuclear-football/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e657bd8a17ed564/6988b440656a3fcd19bce45a/donald-trump-north-korea.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Diana Pearl / People"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e657bd8a17ed564/6988b440656a3fcd19bce45a/donald-trump-north-korea.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President-elect Trump delivered brief remarks to reporters at the Mar-a-lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida","caption":"U.S. President-elect Trump delivered brief remarks to reporters at the Mar-a-lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida","creditText":"Jonathan Ernst—Reuters","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/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4626717/donald-trump-nuclear-football/","name":"This is the 'Nuclear Football' That Donald Trump Will Inherit"}}]}] ```