Who has the nuclear codes? How a 'biscuit' may end logistical nightmare as Trump heads to Florida with 'football'
On Wednesday, January 20, Donald Trump will become the first president in over 150 years to boycott the inauguration of his successor. But apart from just a break in a tradition, his absence from President-elect Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony will also cause serious logistical problems for one of the most crucial aspects of the presidential handover: the nuclear codes.
It is normally during a presidential inauguration that the ‘nuclear football’ — which contains the equipment that the president uses to authenticate instructions and launch a nuclear attack — is handed from one presidential aide to another as the clock declares noon. The ‘football’, which is a 45-pound briefcase, is always carried by a military aide accompanying the president till he officially exits office on January 20. The ‘football’ would be handed over to another military aide waiting nearby the inauguration stand as Biden takes oath as the 46th president.
In case of the transition from Trump to Biden, the handover will not be as smooth. Trump is set to leave Washington DC around 8 am and fly to his estate in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. He will take the ‘nuclear football’ with him since he will still be the president till Biden’s inauguration. However, the nuclear codes will be deactivated at noon.
The 'nuclear football' concern at power transfer
CNN cited experts saying that with Trump taking the ‘nuclear football’ with him to Florida, there will be a situation where at least two briefcases containing the sensitive equipment will be in different locations, hence creating a challenge to a smooth transfer of authority.
“There are at least three to four identical ‘footballs’: one follows the president, one follows the vice president, and one traditionally is set aside for the designated survivor at events like inaugurations and State of the Union addresses,” Stephen Schwartz, a nonresident senior fellow at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, told CNN. “On January 20, [the extra footballs] will be out of town somewhere with their designees, leaving just [Vice President Mike] Pence’s briefcase unless the White House Military Office has prepared (or already has on hand) another backup for Biden,” he added.
Explaining the constitutional basis to the issue, Schwartz said: “Under the 20th Amendment — and absent any invocation of the 25th Amendment that would make Mike Pence the acting president — Donald Trump is president through 11:59:59 am on January 20. Up to that point in time, he has the sole, legal authority to authorize the use of any or all of the US nuclear arsenal.”
He further added: “If an aide with the football accompanies Trump on Air Force One to Florida, that aide will remove himself or herself from Trump's presence at noon and return to Washington, DC, with the briefcase.”
The president needs to carry a plastic card called the “biscuit” all the time. It contains alphanumeric codes that are used to identify the president who has the sole authority to order a nuclear launch. Biden is likely to get his “biscuit” on Wednesday morning when he, along with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, are briefed on the procedure to launch a N-strike.
“The easiest way to think about it is there is a seamless cutover as to which ‘biscuit’ is valid at noon Wednesday,” Vipin Narang, a nuclear policy expert and professor at MIT, was quoted as saying by The Independent. “Biden’s biscuit would not be valid at 11:59 am, and Trump's would not be valid at 12:01 pm.”
Trump, who has not conceded defeat in the 2020 presidential election, is expected to be at the golf course at Mar-a-Lago, 1,000 miles away, when his term officially concludes. Reports, however, said that he wanted to hold a departure event at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, before flying to Florida on the morning of Biden’s swearing-in.