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By Jason Lemon
Deputy News Director
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Democratic lawmakers urged President Joe Biden on Thursday to curb the presidential authority to utilize nuclear weapons before Donald Trump takes office in January.
The U.S. currently gives the sitting president sole authority to authorize the use of nuclear weapons. A May report from the Congressional Research Service explains that this authority is "inherent" in the president's constitutional role as commander in chief. While the president can "seek counsel" from military leaders, they are "required to transmit and implement the orders authorizing nuclear use."
Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Representative Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, sent a letter to Biden on Thursday telling him he should change the current U.S. policy to require Congress to sign off on any use of nuclear weapons. In 2015, Lieu proposed legislation that would require a declaration of war from Congress before the president could utilize nuclear weapons.
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In their letter to Biden, the Democrats called the current policy "dangerous."
"As Donald Trump prepares to return to the Oval Office, it is more important than ever to take the power to start a nuclear war out of the hands of a single individual and ensure that Congress' constitutional role is respected and fulfilled," Markey and Lieu wrote.
The letter went on to urge Biden to take specific steps to curb the future president's nuclear authority. They said such a move could become an "important part" of Biden's "legacy."
"We urge you to announce that henceforth it will be the policy of the United States that it will not initiate a nuclear first strike without express authorization from Congress. In a situation where the United States has already been attacked with nuclear weapons, the president would retain the option to respond unilaterally," the lawmakers wrote.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump transition team and the White House for comment via email on Thursday.
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Concerns About Nuclear War
Democrats have long expressed concerns about the possibility that Trump could order nuclear strikes against U.S. adversaries. The president-elect, during his first term and on the campaign trail, has threatened and suggested that he could potentially take such actions.
"North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.' 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!" Trump wrote on X, then Twitter, back in January 2018.
But Republicans and Trump have also raised concerns that Biden and the Democrats are pushing the U.S. toward a nuclear war.
"We're heading into World War III territory, and because of the power of weapons, nuclear weapons in particular," Trump said in September during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Is a Nuclear War Possible?
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, President Vladimir Putin and his allies in Moscow have repeatedly issued warnings about the possibility they could use nuclear weapons, even potentially against NATO nations. North Korea and Iran's nuclear programs continue to be top national security concerns for the U.S. as well.
Nine countries currently are known to have nuclear weapons. These are China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. Iran does not currently possess nuclear weapons, but many national security analysts believe it could easily develop one with its existing nuclear program.
The U.S. remains the only country to have utilized nuclear weapons against an enemy. At the end of World War II in 1945, the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs, then referred to as atomic bombs, on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. An estimated 110,000 to 210,000 people were killed in those two strikes.
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