What was once ridiculous is now possible. Elon Musk, the wealthiest in world history, has become President Donald Trump’s attack dog. Musk and his government efficiency (DOGE) have unprecedented access to government data and computer systems. Earlier this week, the system was included in the Department of Energy (DOE), which oversees American nuclear weapons. The news was aired by Energy Secretary Chris Wright to deny Musk, raising ample concerns that Doge has access to atomic secrets.
It’s amazing that someone is at the point where they have to make this kind of statement, especially since the Trump administration reportedly lied about the level of access to the Doge. The placement of Doge on Doe increases the chances of a truly strange sound. The pseudo division, named after ShibaInu, could actually have access to nuclear weapons. Fortunately, despite Musk’s ever-growing power over the government system, this requires more than succumbing to the right office to do so. But at a moment when government norms of all kinds are in fluidity, it is worth seeing what exactly separates a person like Musk from perhaps the greatest destructive power on the planet, and what risks his access poses. There is.
The United States has one of the most powerful nuclear weapons on the planet. It’s firepower enough to end all life on Earth several times. The President has only authority to fire these weapons, but the Doges are approaching their system. At a press conference Friday, Trump said he had directed Musk and Doge to tackle spending in the Pentagon. Accessing the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) may not be out of the question either.
But there’s good news. It is virtually impossible to access nuclear command and control from a random laptop hooked into a DOE network. A State Department employee with knowledge of the issues that we had in crisis on the condition that protected their anonymity, threw cold water at the idea.
“I don’t know what (Musk) is going to do,” the employee said. “I think it’s zero. You can’t guess how that will happen. The famous last word. I also want to build a better idiot if you make some stupid evidence. I firmly believe that. “To launch a nuclear weapon requires physical access to the weapon itself. Missia needs to turn the key. Submarine crews must prepare and launch missiles. The bomber crew must pull the lever to polish the target. That doesn’t happen as Musk or his employees have not entered the silo, climbed into stealth bombers, or entered the submarine.
“You can’t guess how that will happen. The famous last word.”
The command and control systems that operate American nuclear weapons are not connected to the Internet and run on closed networks that exist solely for the nuclear forces. They are also old. Some of the equipment used has been around since the 1960s and 1970s. The pentagon modernizes the system, but it’s slow. In 2019, the Air Force stopped using only 8-inch floppy disks from the 1970s for parts of its nuclear computer. “Many of these computer systems are mostly legacy systems,” the employee said. “I’m even more worried that these systems are aging and not in crisis.”
There is a misconception rooted in popular culture that if the US is fired, American nuclear weapons will be fired. If China, Russia, or North Korea launched a nuclear weapon in the United States, the American nuclear weapons did not automatically fire. The president must decide to retaliate, and several military officials must decide to follow the order. “These systems aren’t really automated in a way that people worry about,” said a State Department employee.
Alex Welstein, an associate professor at Stevens’ Institute of Technology and a nuclear and nuclear secret expert, agreed. “I don’t think that the current command and control systems are ‘hackable’,” he told The Verge. “They are frankly not modern enough for that.”
But Wallerstein points out that Musk has a road to nuclear weapons: another – arguably as different as possible – Trump. “If Musk was about to make a true “hostile takeover” of something like that, then he’s only been tricked into believing in nuclear war, which is probably the triviality of Musk’s wealth and Trump’s cheating ease It’s going to be a lot of effort,” he said.
For this to happen, Trump needs to open his football: leather-coated Zero Halliburton Aluminum Attache Cases are chasing the President everywhere. Inside is communications equipment that communicates with the Pentagon National Military Command Center. To make a call, cards require stacked paper called biscuits containing long strings of alpha numbers. He should always have this with him. Reading this line of code updated daily by the National Security Agency will verify the president’s identity when he calls for a nuclear strike. “The president doesn’t have a launch code. The president has a code that authenticates his voice,” a State Department employee said.
So Musk has to get biscuits, access football and call for the code in the voice of Trump. Or convince Trump to do that. “There are things like that, but I don’t think there’s a chance,” said a State Department employee.
But there is one last wrinkle of worry. Football and biscuits exist only because people in the past have decided that the president is the best way to order nuclear launches. Trump can change this process at any time for any reason.
“There are also many very detailed regulations with specific requirements such as clearance and reliability, such as who has access to the systems associated with the use of nuclear weapons,” Wellerstein said. “All of these are essentially enforcement regulations, and presidents can delegate nuclear use authority, and past presidents certainly do so, and essentially, they can use nuclear weapons by the military under certain circumstances. “Accepted in advance.” ”
President Eisenhower empowered Pacific commanders to order the launch of nuclear weapons under very specific circumstances, for example, under very specific circumstances, and Kennedy and Johnson maintained their tradition.
Wellerstein noted that Doge employees without clearance appear to have access to classified systems “usually considered very sensitive.” Others that were once forbidden may also be found on the table.
The most obvious nuclear threat may be that Musk sees everyday environment cleansing as “awakening”
“President Trump decides that Elon Musk should have access to the nuclear weapons and instructs the military to override the usual requirements, which the military sees as a legal and practical order. Wellstein “It’s an absurd, patently ridiculous, self-destructive idea, but it doesn’t really distinguish it from anything else that’s happening right now. It’s essentially suicide, but Trump’s authority. So are other actions currently underway under.
Football and biscuits are not sacred.
But even in this worst and worst-case scenario, there is no big red button that Trump or Musk can push to open the silo and unleash the nuclear Armageddon. “What the president has is authority,” said a State Department employee. “That authority is essentially legal. The president cannot launch nuclear weapons. He has no capacity.” This ability is distributed to dozens of people, including the crew and missiles of the above submarines.
“All of these scenarios rely on military forces following orders,” Wellerstein said. “I would like to believe they refuse to do so, but it would also be difficult and extraordinary in and of itself. That’s not the situation I want to be involved in.”
Trump and Musk are seeking a nuclear disaster that is far more likely than launching intercontinental ballistic missiles. The crew of Musk’s Doge is not full of people like those you want in the Pentagon or Doo. Employee Edward Coristin has a connection between Russian cybercriminals and operating websites. If Washington was working properly, he and others probably never got security clearance.
But they’re barreling anyway. And every Doge employee is the point of failure of a sensitive system that contains information related to the most powerful weapons on the planet. “There’s probably a lot of HR data that’s interesting for the foreign enemy,” said a State Department employee. China and Russia want to get information about people with security clearance. Background checks submit information about debt, family relationships, and other information that will help intimidate government officials.
Nuclear weapons also produce nuclear waste. The United States has not yet cleaned up any waste left in the Manhattan Project. In America, people are almost dying of illness due to nuclear material left behind from various American nuclear weapons projects. Under Biden, the Department of Energy had planned to spend $8.2 billion to clean its Cold War-era nuclear waste. However, employees were worried that Doge and Musk would view the daily environmental preservation around nuclear weapons projects as “awakening.”
A large portion of the NNSA budget is dedicated to environmental cleanup. “I could see them viewing this as false environmentalism,” the employee said. “I can just see them just because they decided to shut everything down.”
Nuclear modernization began during the Obama administration and will unfold over the next 25 years. The US is currently planning to spend around $2 trillion on the project. They plan to dig new missile silos across the country, deploy updated nuclear weapons, improve computer systems, and build new nuclear submarines. It’s a big effort with great potential for waste, fraud and abuse. Under all administrations, it must be scrutinized and audited. The people who are auditing them now are musks and dojis.
Musk and Kudji prove they don’t care about the systems introduced to keep Americans safe and protect sensitive data. They are a philosophy that “moves fast and breaks things.” There are laws and regulations that will keep people like them away from the Hall of Fame and from sensitive nuclear secrets.
“Regulations only work if people take them seriously. The law only works if they are in force,” Wellerstein said. “We’re in an empty land right now.”
