There have been rumors swirling for awhile now that there’s a White House contingency plan in place to prevent President Trump from going whole hog and “pushing the button,” effectively starting war with North Korea or who knows where else. Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly and Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis reportedly made a deal that one of them would always remain in the United States to essentially babysit the president, who supposedly continues to unravel. During a sit down on the Today show Thursday morning, Matt Lauer asked former CIA Director under the Obama administration John Brennan if there could be any truth to those rumors.
“Stories are going around out there that if the president inches closer to some kind of a nuclear confrontation with North Korea, that those guys are gonna do something, they’re gonna lock him in a room, they’re gonna tackle him,” Lauer theorized. Brennan responded, saying only that Trump’s aides understand the gravity of the situation.
“No, I think the military leaders, current and former, Mattis, Kelly … they know the risks of escalation, they know just how dangerous the situation is,” he said. “And I think they are governors on the president’s instincts to continue to try to intimidate and bully.” When pressed on the answer to the question, Brennan admitted, “The president had unilateral authority to be able to authorize military action. That order goes through Secretary Mattis, [who] can either try to talk him out of it, disagree with it, carry it out, or not.”
In other words, your ability to sleep at night pretty much directly correlates with how much faith you have in Mattis and Kelly. Good to know.