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What was once ridiculous is now possible. Elon Musk, the richest person in the history of the world, has become President Donald Trumps attack dog. Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have unprecedented access to the governments data and computer system. Earlier this week, that came to include systems in the Department of Energy (DOE), which oversees Americas nuclear weapons. The news raised enough concern that Secretary of Energy Chris Wright went on the air to deny Musk and DOGE have access to atomic secrets.
It’s alarming to be at a point where someone has to make this kind of statement, especially because the Trump administration has reportedly lied about DOGE’s access levels before. DOGE’s placement at the DOE even raises a truly bizarre-sounding possibility: that a pseudo-department named after a shiba inu could get actual access to nuclear weapons. Fortunately, despite Musk’s ever-expanding power over government systems, it would take far more than barging into the right office to do this.
But at a moment where all kinds of governmental norms are in flux, it’s worth looking at what exactly separates someone like Musk from perhaps the greatest destructive force on the planet — and what other kinds of risks his access could pose.
The US has one of the most powerful nuclear arsenals on the planet. It’s enough firepower to end all life on Earth several times over. The President has the sole authority to launch those weapons, but DOGE is inching ever closer to their systems. During a press conference on Friday, Trump said he had directed Musk and DOGE to tackle spending at the Pentagon; getting access to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) might not be out of the question either.
There’s good news, however: accessing any piece of nuclear command and control from a random laptop hooked into a DOE network is virtually impossible. A State Department employee with knowledge of the issue, who spoke to The Verge on the condition we protect their anonymity, threw cold water on the idea.
“I can’t see what [Musk] would possibly do,” the employee said. “I would say it’s zero. I can’t fathom how that would happen. Famous last words. I also firmly believe that if you make something idiot proof, the world will build a better idiot.” Launching a nuke requires physical access to the weapon itself. Missileers have to turn keys. A submarine crew must prep and fire a missile. A bomber crew must pull levers and hone in on targets. Short of Musk or his employees entering a silo, climbing onto a stealth bomber, or getting into a submarine, it’s not going to happen.
The command and control systems that run America’s nuclear weapons aren’t connected to the internet and are run on a closed network that exists only for nuclear forces. They’re also ancient. Some of the equipment in use has been around since the 1960s and ‘70s. The Pentagon is modernizing the systems, but it’s slow going. The Air Force only stopped using 1970s-era eight-inch floppy discs for some of its nuclear computers in 2019. “A lot of these computer systems are pretty much legacy systems,” the employee said. “I’m much more worried about these systems being decrepit and not functioning in a crisis.”
There’s a misconception rooted in popular culture that America’s nuclear weapons will fire if the U.S. is ever fired upon. If China, Russia, or North Korea were to fire a nuke at the U.S., America’s nukes would not automatically fire. The President would need to decide to retaliate and multiple military officials would have to decide to follow the order. “Those systems are not really automated in the way that people worry about,” the State Department employee said.
Alex Wellerstein, an associate professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology and an expert in nukes and nuclear secrecy, agreed. “I don’t think the current command and control systems are ‘hackable,’” he told The Verge. “They are frankly not modern enough for that.”
Wallerstein points out, however, that Musk has another — arguably more feasible — path to nuclear weapons: Trump. “If Musk was trying to do a true ‘hostile takeover’ of that sort it would be best accomplished by just fooling Trump into believing nuclear war was imminent, which would probably be a trivial endeavor for someone of Musk’s wealth and Trump’s gullibility,” he said.
For this to happen, Trump would need to open up his Football: a leather-coated Zero Halliburton aluminum attache case that follows the president everywhere. Inside is communications equipment that puts him in touch with the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon. To make the call, Trump would need a laminated sheet of paper called the Biscuit, containing a long string of alpha-numeric code. He’s supposed to have this with him at all times too. Reading out a line in this code, which the National Security Agency updates every day, confirms the President’s identity when he calls in a nuclear strike. “The President doesn’t have launch codes. The President has a code that authenticates his voice,” the State Department Employee said.
