How close is Elon Musk to controlling a nuclear weapon?

What was once funny is now possible. Elon Musk, the richest man in the history of the world, became the attacking dog of President Donald Trump. Mask and its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have unprecedented access to government data and computer system. Earlier this week, which began to include systems in the Ministry of Energy (DOE), which oversee the nuclear weapons of America. The news caused sufficient concern that the Minister of Energy Chris Wright was air to deny Musk, and Dog had access to atomic secrets.

It is anxious to be at the point when someone should make such a statement, especially because the Trump administration is reported, Lg about the levels of Doga’s access earlier. The location of the driving in the Ministry of Energy even increases the really strange opportunity: that the pseudo-estate, named after Shiba Inu, can get actual access to nuclear weapons. Fortunately, despite the constantly expanding power of Musk over state systems, this will need much more than disposal in the right office. But at the moment when all kinds of government norms are in a change, it is worth looking at that it is precisely separating someone like Musk from perhaps the greatest destructive force on the planet – and what other types of risks can represent its access.

The United States has one of the most powerful nuclear arsenals on the planet. This is enough firepower to finish all your life on earth several times. The president has the only power to launch this weapon, but the dog is getting closer to his systems. During the press conference on Friday, Trump said that he instructed the musk and the dog to engage in expenses in the Pentagon; Obtaining access to the National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) also cannot be not in the matter.

However, there is good news: access to any part of the nuclear team and control from a random laptop connected to the DOE network is almost impossible. An employee of the State Department, knowing about the problem that he talked to Grave Provided that we protect their anonymity, threw cold water into this idea.

“I do not see that [Musk] Perhaps this will do it, ”said the employee. “I would say that this is zero. I cannot understand how this will happen. The famous last words. I also firmly believe that if you make anything idiotic proof, the world will build a better idiot. ” The launch of the nucleus requires physical access to the weapon itself. Raiki must turn the keys. The underwater team must prepare and release the rocket. The crew of the bomber must pull the levers and shake on the target. With the exception of musk or its employees, entering the bunker, climbing the bomber -unclear or getting to the submarine, this will not happen.

Command and management systems that launch America’s nuclear weapons are not related to the Internet and work on a closed network, which exists only for nuclear forces. They are also ancient. Some of the equipment used have existed since the 1960s and 70s. The Pentagon modernizes the systems, but this is slow. The air forces only stopped using the eight-inch discs of the 1970s for some of their nuclear computers in 2019. “Many of these computer systems are largely outdated systems,” the employee said. “I am much more worried that these systems are decrepit and not functioning in crisis.”

In a popular culture, there is a wrong idea that America’s nuclear weapons will shoot if the United States is launched when the United States is launched. If China, Russia or North Korea shot in an ulcer in the United States, American nuclear legs will not automatically shoot. The president should have decided to take revenge, and several military officials will have to decide to follow the order. “These systems are actually not automated as people are worried,” said an employee of the State Department.

Alex Vellerstein, assistant professor of the Stevens Technological Institute, and an expert on nuclear and nuclear secrecy, agreed. “I do not think that the current systems of teams and the management of“ hacked, ”he said GraveThe field “They are frankly not modern enough.”

Wallerstein notes, however, that Musk has one more – perhaps more possible – the path to nuclear weapons: Trump. “If Musk tried to make a true“ hostile absorption ”of this kind, it would be best, just deceiving Trump that the nuclear war was inevitable, which would probably be a trivial effort for someone from the wealth of Musk and Trump’s gullibility. ” – He will say.

In order for this to happen, Trump would have to open his own football: an aluminum case with an aluminum attachment with a leather coating, which follows the president everywhere. Inside there is communication equipment that connects it with the National Military Center in the Pentagon. To make a call, Trump will require a laminated sheet of paper, called a cookie containing a long chain of alpha code. He must always have it with him. Reading the line in this Code, which the National Security Agency updates every day, confirms the President’s personality when he calls for a nuclear strike. “The president has no launch codes. The president has a code that authentic his voice, ”said an employee of the State Department.

Thus, Musk had to get cookies, get access to football and call the code in Trump’s voice. Or convince Trump to do it. “With the exception of something like that, I don’t think there is a chance,” said an employee of the State Department.

But there is one final, alarming wrinkle: football and cookies exist only because people in the past decided that for the president this is the best way to order a nuclear launch. Trump can change this process at any time for any reason.

“There are also many rather detailed rules regarding who can have access to systems that include the use of nuclear weapons with specific requirements for skipping and reliability, etc.,” said Wellerstein. “All this is essentially executive rules, and the president is able to delegate the powers on nuclear use, and the former presidents, of course, did this, in fact,“ previously aligning ”the use of nuclear weapons by the military under certain circumstances.”

President Eisenhower authorized commanders in the Pacific Ocean, for example, to order the launch of nuclear weapons under very specific circumstances, and Kennedy and Johnson retained the tradition.

Wellerstein noted that DOGE employees without permissions, according to, have access to classified systems that are “usually considered quite sensitive”. Other things that were once prohibited can also be on the table.

“If President Trump decides that Elon Musk must have access to nuclear, and tells the military to reject his usual requirements, and the military accept this as a legal and effective order, why not?” Vellerstein said. “This is an absurd and obviously idiotic and self -destructive idea, but it does not distinguish it from other things at present. This is suicide by nature, but at present other actions are taken in accordance with the government of Trump. ”

Football and cookies are not sacred.

But even in this worst case, from the worst scenarios there is no large red button of Trump or musk to open the silage and untie the nuclear armageddon. “What the president has is power,” said an employee of the State Department. “This powers are legal in nature. The president cannot launch nuclear weapons. There is no ability. ” The ability is distributed into dozens of people, including an underwater command and missile missile mentioned above – any of which could break a chain.

“All these scenarios rely on military orders,” said Wellerstein. “I would prefer to believe that they would refuse to do it. But it would also be a complex and extraordinary thing in itself. This is not the situation in which I would like them to be. ”

Trump and Musk take care of much more likely nuclear disasters than the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. The MUSK’s DOGE team is not filled with people you want in the Pentagon or DOW; Employee Edward Coristin has a connection with cybercriminals and managed websites in Russia. He and others, most likely, would never have received security permits if Washington functioned normally.

And yet they still collapse. And each DOGE employee is a refusal point of a delicate system, including information related to the most powerful weapon on the planet. “There are probably a lot of data on personnel who are of interest to a foreign enemy,” said an employee of the State Department. China and Russia would like to get information about people with security permits. Checks of biographical data provide information about debts, family relations and other information that would be useful for blackmailing a government official.

Nuclear weapons also produce nuclear waste. The United States still did not clean the waste left behind the Manhattan project. People are sick and die right now in America from nuclear material left as a result of various projects of America nuclear weapons. Under Bayden, the Ministry of Energy planned to spend $ 8.2 billion to clean these nuclear waste of the Cold War. But the employee is concerned that the DOG and Musk will see the usual environmental service around the nuclear weapons projects as “waking up”.

Most of the NNSA budget is devoted to environmental purification. “I could see how they think about it as an erroneous ecology,” the employee said. “I see how they just decided to close all this.”

Nuclear modernization began during the Obama administration and will be played over the next 25 years. Currently, the United States will spend almost $ 2 trillion per project. He is going to dig up new missile bunkers across the country, deploy updated nuclear weapons, update computer systems and build new nuclear submarines. This is a large event with great potential for waste, fraud and abuse. With any administration, it must be carefully studied and checked. Right now, people conducted by these audits are a musk and a dog.

Musk and DOG proved that they do not care about the systems created to ensure the safety of Americans and protect confidential data. This is the philosophy of “move quickly and break things.” There are laws and normative acts to prevent people like them, outside the halls of power and from sensitive nuclear secrets.

“The rules work only if people perceive them seriously. Laws work only if they are applied, ”said Wellerstein. “We are now on earth without a person.”