Trump’s Finger Gets Closer to Nuclear Button

Not that Congress cares

By Ken Klippenstein, Substack

The Pentagon is “increasing [nuclear] options available to the President for purposes of deterring or responding effectively to a nuclear contingency,” undersecretary of war Elbridge Colby says.

Unless you’re a member of the nuclear priesthood, this is probably the first you’re hearing about it. The Senate knows, having been briefed earlier this month in a closed hearing. But neither Congress nor the media have said a word about the disclosure I quoted (which this humble newsletter is providing you in its entirety below).

An unarmed Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile launches during an operational test at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time May 21, 2025, at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. ICMB test launches demonstrate that the U.S. ICBM fleet is ready, reliable and effective in leveraging dominance in an era of strategic competition. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jack Rodriguez Escamilla)

Colby has been making this case for a long time. In 2011, fresh off a Pentagon stint working on Obama’s New START treaty, he wrote about what he thought America’s nuclear war plans should be able to do.

“The United States should maintain the assured ability to conduct a devastating, effectively annihilating strike against any opponent even after an attempt by that opponent to disarm the United States through a first strike of its own,” Colby said. The forces held back for retaliation, he added, should be able to “destroy the attacking country as a functioning society.”

Sounds like he’s got World Wars III-IV covered.