How will US nuclear strike authority be handed to Biden amid Trump’s no-show at inauguration?

WASHINGTON DC (Spu-tnik): Trump has already left the White House and is on his way to his Mara-Lago home in Florida during the countdown to the beginning of Biden’s inauguration.

For the first time in modern US history, Trump will not hand over the so-called nuclear “football” to Biden because the outgoing US president will be in Florida when the president-elect is sworn in. This means that the handover will take place differently, NBC News reports.

The nuclear “football”, in fact, looks like an oddly shaped 45-pound (20 kilogrammes) leather briefcase that is typically carried by a military aide. It contains the mechanism for a US president to authorise the nuclear codes – rather than a big red button to launch a strike, as many think.

NBC News cited an unnamed source who said that the fact Trump was ph-ysically out of Washington did not affect his launch authority or access to the nuclear “football” until noon, when Biden’s inauguration is due to start.

The source added that a military aide will accompany Trump to Florida with one of the briefcases and that the outgoing president will retain sole authority to launch a nuclear strike until 11:59:59am on Wednesday.

“Another military aide with a second nuclear ‘football’ will hand over the authority to Biden once he is sworn in, and the military aide with Trump will bring ‘the football’ back to Washington”, according to NBC News. With “the football” for the president-elect due to be on hand for him at noon on Wednesday, Retired Na-vy Admiral Stavridis, in turn, explained that just before Biden becomes president, “there’s a football in his vicinity [that] is activated”. The White House declined to comment on the matter, citing security concerns.