General Dan Kaine and Donald Trump
Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst Larry Johnson alleged that US President Donald Trump considered using the nuclear option against Iran, but backed off after a firm “no” answer from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Kane.“Johnson told ANI, “Trump was seriously entertaining and asking about the use of nuclear weapons. And General Kaine, to his credit, said, ‘Absolutely not’ – very firmly. So there was a discussion about the use of nuclear weapons.”He further claimed that after Kaine’s objection, Trump publicly stated that nuclear weapons would not be used.“It (the nuclear proposal) was rejected by General Kaine, and that’s why Donald Trump came out later and admitted in the meeting, no, no, no, we’re never going to use nuclear. Good. It was taken off the table…Later, we got confirmation that the issue of using nuclear weapons had come up. It was discussed and General Kane killed it,” he added.Explaining the chain of command, Johnson said that Trump, as commander-in-chief, could order the use of nuclear weapons, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is not formally part of the operational chain of command.The former CIA analyst explained, “It’s not so much a veto power as it is a role for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. By law, he (Kane) is the senior military adviser to the president. Now, the chain of command for using a nuclear weapon is that if Trump gave the order, it would go to the general who is in charge of Stratcom.” “And he (Trump) will now go through the Secretary of Defense, or the Secretary of War (Pete Hegseth), and then go from the Secretary of War to the general who commands Stratcom. “Stratcom will be responsible for implementing this.”Johnson argued, however, that such a decision might have caused Cain to resign in protest if his advice had been ignored.“And, you know, the implication is that if Trump actually tried to escalate or do something like that, you could see a potential resignation by Chairman Kaine. You just say, no, this is out of bounds. This is unacceptable. This is a real military consideration. General Kaine was not expressing any political view,” he said.Trump’s Truth Social post on April 7 raised fears that the US might resort to nuclear action against Iran.“Tonight an entire civilization will die, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” the Republican leader wrote on his social media platforms.However, the next day they declared a ceasefire which still stands. The Middle East war began on February 28 with joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran.The United States is the only country to have used nuclear weapons in combat, dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II in August 1945.