If we ever learned how close we’ve repeatedly come to nuclear armageddon, we’d probably all go insane. Nobody wants to think that human civilization is balancing on a knife-edge, with the only thing stopping it being individuals making an ethical choice to prevent the atomic button being pushed.
This very situation may have happened over the weekend. In comments on the “Judging Freedom” podcast, retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson explained that he’d been told Donald Trump was actively trying to use nuclear weapons against Iran:
Retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson: Trump tried to used nuclear codes against Iran during White House “emergency meeting” on Saturday. Trump was halted by Air Force General Dan Cain who used military privilege to stop him. pic.twitter.com/5tKsfsZHOz
— ThePatrioticBlonde™🇺🇸 (@ImBreckWorsham) April 20, 2026
“There was a report out that they had an emergency meeting Saturday night and apparently one report coming out of that meeting at the White House is that Trump wanted to use the nuclear codes and then General Dan Caine stood up and said “no”.
He invoked his privilege as the head of the military, so to speak. Apparently there was quite a blow-up. There are pictures of Caine coming out of that meeting with his head down to the ground. There’s some very bizarre things going on.”
“There’s some very bizarre things going on.”
Is this account plausible? Well, given Trump’s recent bizarre behavior and his vows that Iran’s “civilization will die”, it at least feels possible he’s considered deploying America’s nuclear arsenal. After all, Trump is nothing if not grandiose and seems to revel in being considered dangerous and unpredictable, so using (what would presumably be) a smaller-scale nuclear weapon would make the world sit up and take notice.
However, it’s unclear whether Gen. Caine would even have the authority to overrule the president in this way. US nuclear command procedures involve the President issuing an order via the “football” and codes, with authentication through the National Military Command Center, multiple officers, and the chain of command.
Caine is ultimately an advisor without command authority, so on paper, he can’t prevent the president from launching nukes. However, given we have other reports about Trump being actively sidelined from key military decisions on the basis that his erratic behavior would get people killed, it’s possible that everyone in the room just silently concluded that it’d be best to pretend he didn’t just say that.
Whatever the truth of this situation, it should send chills up your spine that Trump has nuclear launch authority. We can only hope there are servicemen and women with the courage to disobey (or at least question) a Trump order to fire nuclear weapons.
Take, for example, the famous case of Soviet lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov. In 1983 he was a nuclear weapons duty officer, and saw his system report five ICBMs launched from the United States at the Soviet Union. Petrov knew if he reported this as he was supposed to, his superiors were likely to authorize a massive nuclear response in retaliation.
Petrov disobeyed his orders and prayed it was a false alarm. It was, and it’s argued Petrov’s conscience and clear thinking avoided nuclear armageddon. For his troubles, Petrov was reassigned, pushed into early retirement, and suffered a nervous breakdown.
We can only hope there are men like Petrov within the nuclear chain of command who know that Trump is losing it, have the courage to disobey orders, and a conscience that’ll stop them from unleashing armageddon.
Published: Apr 21, 2026 05:51 am