What is Trump’s Nuclear Button?

Trump threatened a nuclear holocaust in North Korea. Responding to Kim Jong Un’s speech from a day earlier—when the North Korean leader said the U.S. is “within the range of our nuclear strike and a nuclear button is always on the desk of my office”—Trump tweeted, “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

In “Safire’s Political Dictionary”, cited by ’The New York Times’ newspaper, the expression is commonly used to mean “ready to launch an atomic war,” but the writer added that it is also a “scare phrase used in attacking candidates” during presidential elections.

According to the newspaper, Hillary Clinton said of her opponent, during the 2016 presidential election, “Trump shouldn’t have his finger on the button, or his hands on our economy.”

In another story ’The New York Times’ explained that in order to authorize the attack, the US president must first verify his identity by providing a code he is supposed to carry on him at all times. The code, often described as a card, is nicknamed “the biscuit.”

The order then goes to the US Strategic Command HQ in Offutt Airbase, Nebraska; they then pass it to "on the ground" teams (although these may be at sea, or under water), the story added.

According to BBC, the order to fire is transmitted via codes - which must match codes locked in the launch team’s safes, and president does not need approval from anyone else, including Congress or the military, to authorize a strike — a decision that might have to be made at a moment’s notice.