The threat of nuclear war should not rest in the hands of Donald Trump

Our always insecure man-child Twitter-troll-in-chief really outdid himself over the New Year’s weekend, but he saved his most insane tweets for Tuesday when he was supposedly back at work (he was actually watching Fox & Friends). Fact-checking President Trump’s post-New Year’s tweets.

This is why for foreign leaders and diplomats around the world taking the measure of our man-child Twitter-troll-in-chief, “The word they all used was: ‘This guy is insane.’” Donald Trump’s Year of Living Dangerously.

The tweet that put the world on edge on Tuesday was President Trump’s threat of nuclear war with North Korea using the taunt of a man insecure in his own manhood. Trump Says His ‘Nuclear Button’ Is ‘Much Bigger’ Than North Korea’s:

President Trump again raised the prospect of nuclear war with North Korea, boasting in strikingly playground terms on Tuesday night that he commands a “much bigger” and “more powerful” arsenal of devastating weapons than the outlier government in Asia.

Yeah, For Starters, There’s No Button. More importantly, a nuclear war may hinge on our always insecure man-child Twitter-troll-in-chief’s freudian insistence that “my missile is bigger than yours.”

Mr. Trump’s combative response to a statement made the day before by Mr. Kim raised the temperature in the brewing confrontation between the United States and North Korea even as American allies in South Korea were moving to open talks with Pyongyang. The contrast between Mr. Trump’s language and the peace overture by South Korea highlighted the growing rift between two longtime allies.

The president’s tone also generated a mix of scorn and alarm among lawmakers, diplomats and national security experts who called it juvenile and frightening for a president handling a foreign policy challenge with world-wrecking consequences. The language was reminiscent of Mr. Trump’s boast [to Sen. Marco Rubio] during the 2016 presidential campaign that his hands, and by extension his genitals, were in fact big enough.

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The North Korea tweet near the end of the day seemed most distressing to some in Washington watching the escalating clash between the United States and a nuclear-armed North.

“I guess the president regards this as a show of strength,” Representative Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN. “But as everybody who’s ever been in a, you know, first grade playground recognizes, it’s usually the person who’s most aggressively pounding their chest that is in fact the weak one on the playground.”

Eliot A. Cohen, who was counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice under President George W. Bush, said the tweet demonstrated an immaturity that is dangerous in a commander-in-chief.

“Spoken like a petulant ten-year old,” Mr. Cohen wrote on Twitter. “But one with nuclear weapons — for real — at his disposal. How responsible people around him, or supporting him, can dismiss this or laugh it off is beyond me.”

Mr. Trump’s [sycophant] supporters brushed off the criticism, calling the president’s words a bracing stand that would force North Korea to confront the potential repercussions of its efforts to develop nuclear weapons that could reach the continental United States.

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The president’s saber-rattling tweet shifted the tenor of his response to the South Korean initiative just hours after a milder initial statement. Mr. Trump, who has disdained the prospects of negotiating with North Korea, said earlier in the day that the possible talks between the two governments on the peninsula resulted from sanctions imposed by the United States and the international community. “Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not – we will see!” he wrote Tuesday morning.

Why Mr. Trump hardened his message later the same day was not immediately clear. But he has not hesitated to match North Korea’s incendiary language even as other American presidents resisted such back-and-forth taunting out of concern that it was unwise and unnecessarily rewarding the hermit nation.

Over the summer, Mr. Trump vowed to rain down “fire and fury” on North Korea if it posed a threat to the United States. In the fall, he went before the United Nations General Assembly to warn that he would “totally destroy North Korea” if the United States were forced to defend itself or its allies.

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Many security experts have said there is no reasonable military option for restraining North Korea that would not involve unacceptable loss of life, which is one reason South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, is more eager for dialogue. But Mr. Trump and his national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, have argued that there is a viable military alternative.

No, there is no military alternative that will not result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives on the Korean peninsula, if not millions of lives if Kim Jong Un successfully uses a nuclear weapon, inviting a nuclear retaliation from the U.S. And that would invite a response from North Korea’s nuclear neighbors, China and Russia. The Trump administration is playing with fire.

The fate of the world should not rest in the hands of an always insecure man-child who engages in schoolyard taunts of “mine is bigger than yours.” Trump is putting the U.S. military in the position of disregarding his orders should he impulsively order a nuclear strike out of anger or retaliation for a perceived slight or insult, or a desire to show that he is tougher than Kim Jong Un. Vice President Mike Pence and the Trump cabinet have a constitutional obligation to invoke the 25th Amendment and to remove this insane madman fromcommand of the nuclear arsenal.

In fact, recently Roger Stone, former Trump adviser, claims Cabinet members are plotting to remove the president:

Some members of President Trump’s own Cabinet have discussed plans to remove him from the White House, according to Roger Stone, Mr. Trump’s former presidential campaign adviser.

Mr. Stone claimed during a recent interview aired on C-SPAN that he heard that some members of Mr. Trump’s administration have weighed whether they can invoke the 25th Amendment to take him out of office.

“Do you have any evidence that anyone is actively plotting or attempting or laying the groundwork right now inside the Cabinet — inside the administration — to make that removal?” Associated Press reporter Tom LoBianco asked Mr. Stone.

“I have sources, and I work my sources, and yes, I believe there are some who have had this discussion. This is both outside the Cabinet and in. I think it’s the fallback plan for the establishment. That’s why I’m trying to sound the clarion call,” Mr. Stoneresponded.

Mr. Stone declined to disclose specifics when pressed for further details, but he insisted his claim wasn’t baseless.

“There are members of the Cabinet who have had this discussion. Let me just leave it at that,” Mr. Stone added.

Republicans in Congress also have a duty to step up and to prevent this insane madman from triggering a nuclear war. Their indifference and silence in response to Trump’s reckless behavior is equally reckless and irresponsible behavior. They are enabling an insane madman who may trigger a nuclear war. They need to act before it is too late.