Former senior national security leaders from across the political spectrum have said they would “fear for the Republic” in a Trump presidency, that he is “crazy,” “a gamble for the future,” and would have “dangerous consequences for the United States.” The U.S. military is the most powerful fighting force the world has ever known and has hundreds of nuclear warheads on hair-trigger alert, ready to be launched in a matter of minutes.
Former Secretary of Defense under both Presidents George W. Bush and Obama, Robert Gates, said “I think that some of the things he has said have some very… if they were to be implemented, have dangerous consequences for the United States.” Another former Obama Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, who also served as Director of the CIA, highlighted one of those extremely dangerous policies when he said Trump “talks about distributing atomic weapons so that it’s OK that Japan gets atomic weapons, if Korea gets atomic weapons… Those are crazy positions.”
Michael Hayden, the former Director of both the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency under President George W. Bush, was perhaps the most pointed when he warned that he “fear[s] for the Republic” should Trump assume the presidency. He went on to say that if Trump would order the United States military to carry out his policies, “the American armed forces would refuse to act… You are required not to follow an unlawful order.” In response to Hayden’s comments, Trump replied, “they’re not gonna refuse me. Believe me… if I say do it, they’re gonna do it.”
Some of things that Trump is going to get the military to do over their objections include deliberately murdering innocent civilians, indiscriminately bombing civilian areas, and committing torture. His reaction to a terrorist attack last year was to propose banning all Muslims from entering the United States. In the first hours after the recent crash of an Egypt Air plane over the Mediterranean, Trump called it terrorism, a claim that no actual terrorist organization has yet made and even though no cause for the disaster had been determined over a week after the crash.
This level of impulsiveness would be incredibly dangerous in a Commander in Chief. Trump would sit atop a military that has no rival. Its 2.5 million active duty and reserve personnel defend the U.S. homeland and are deployed at nearly 600 overseas bases in 70 countries. Its 270 warships patrol every major sea and shipping route in the world. Its 5,000 fighters and attack aircraft can check any foe or reach any target. Its 75 submarines move silently beneath the world’s oceans. And the 7,100 nuclear warheads in the U.S. arsenal serve as the ultimate deterrent, including almost 1,000 on hair-trigger alert that are designed to be launched just a few minutes after the President gives the order.
Being Commander in Chief of the U.S. military is an awesome responsibility. You have the power to send America’s sons and daughters off to war and the frightening capability to destroy the entire planet. It is true that he has tried to walk back some of his rashest statements. But you can’t walk back a nuclear missile.