Washington, July 13: President Donald Trump has indicated that he has left standing orders for the US military to destroy Iran “at levels they’ve never seen before” if Tehran follows through on its long-standing threats to kill him.
But the US government has no way to create an automatic, preauthorised “dead man’s switch” that would prompt immediate retaliation.
Instead, if Trump were killed, the transfer of power to his successor is governed by the 25th Amendment and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.
Vice President JD Vance instantaneously would become commander in chief and have authority for any retaliation.
Under such a scenario, Vance could do exactly what Trump called for, though there also is a chance he could decide not to follow his predecessor’s orders — or offer a direct response in a different way.
“The US has, for a whole variety of reasons, never utilised a technical dead man’s switch,” said Garrett M Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the US Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die.”
The United States does have extensive contingency plans for continuity of government in the event of a nuclear attack or other major catastrophe that wipes out most or all of Washington.
But those plans also do not allow for immediately launching retaliatory strikes upon the death of a president, even if that president had demanded that the military be ready to do so.
Trump nonetheless posted on his social media website Saturday that Iran had made threats “to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate” him and he said 1,000 “missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat.”
Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said hours later that Iranians would continue to avenge the killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The elder Khamenei died in the initial US and Israeli strikes that started the war in late February and he was mourned in funeral events throughout Iran this week.
His son said retaliation “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out.”
“We pledge to take revenge for the pure blood of you and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraceful killers,” he said in remarks aired on state television. (AP)
