National Security

There Will Soon Be No One Overseeing Our Nukes

Written by SK Ashby

Just as we will soon have no ambassadors because despot-elect Donald Trump has decided to break with continuity and precedent to remove everyone ever appointed by President Obama, we will soon have no one overseeing our nuclear weapons.

The incoming Trump regime has informed the chief of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to leave immediately and there's no replacement in sight.

According to an official within the Department of Energy, this past Friday, the President-elect’s team instructed the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration and his deputy to clean out their desks when Trump takes office on January 20th. [...] Or, as our source put it: “It’s a shocking disregard for process and continuity of government.” [...]

The source later added, “I’m more and more coming around to the idea that we’re so very very fucked.”

Civilians who work at the NNSA will remain at their posts and fulfill their duties, but the agency will not have an official leader who speaks to Congress or directs the agency. It's not clear who agency employees will report to while the agency has no director.

The NNSA is an agency within the Department of Energy. As you know, Trump has nominated former Texas Governor Rick "Oops" Perry to serve as secretary of the Department of Energy. That's not exactly comforting.