'Not Just Dumb—Dangerous': Trump to Allow Exit of Nuke Safety Officials
Gizmodo subsequently published a clarification stating that, while the two officials “have submitted their resignations, intend to depart on January 20, and have not been asked by the Trump transition to stay past that date, the Trump team has not explicitly instructed them to leave or ‘clean out their desks,’ as we reported. According to our source, both officials ‘have expressed [to the Trump team] that they would likely be willing to stay to facilitate a smooth transition, if asked,’ as is the tradition for key officials, and have received no response.”
Gizmodo altered its headline to reflect the clarification, as did Common Dreams.
President-elect Donald Trump—whose pending control of America’s nuclear arsenal already has many people deeply concerned—has apparently ordered the resignation of two government officials whose role is to ensure that stockpile remains safe and secure.
Citing an unnamed Energy Department official, Gizmodo reported that on Friday, Trump “instructed the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration [NNSA] and his deputy to clean out their desks when Trump takes office on January 20th.”
The NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy that, according to its website, “maintains and enhances the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear explosive testing; works to reduce the global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the U.S. Navy with safe and effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the U.S. and abroad.”
While the exit of political appointees under a new administration is not unusual, what is surprising is Trump’s seeming disregard for positions left unfilled—though the decision is in line with the president-elect’s mandate, reported last week, that all foreign ambassadors appointed by President Barack Obama leave their posts by Inauguration Day, without exception.
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Gizmodo reported:
Senior reporter Ashley Feinberg wrote: “As far as I can tell, this is unprecedented—January 20 will mark the first time in the NNSA’s 17-year history that it will exist wholly without its appointed leadership.”
And her source told her, “I’m more and more coming around to the idea that we’re so very very fucked.”
On Monday, Ploughshares Fund president Joseph Cirincione tweeted in response to the news:
Late last month, Cirincione—whose group is circulating a petition calling on Obama to “take US nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert, so that any attempt to use these weapons would take hours or days”—spoke to Democracy Now! about Trump’s incoherent and frightening nuclear policy: