Eli Lake, Columnist

America's Adversaries Get It: Trump Can Be Ignored

The real threat is not Trump's nuclear power, but the disconnect between his tweets and the government itself.

November 21, 2017 at 10:30 AM EST

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Superpowers aren't super if their leaders aren't credible.
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Pool/Getty Images

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As 2017 comes to a close, much of Washington is pondering what was once imponderable: What if President Donald Trump orders a nuclear strike as rashly as he tweets?

Senator Bob Corker, Trump’s former ally and the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, held hearings this month on the president's authorities over nuclear weapons. Trump and nuclear weapons is frequent topic for Washington’s favorite televised conversation, “Morning Joe.” Over the weekend it came up at an annual confab for national security professionals and deep thinkers known as the Halifax Forum.

Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

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