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Sixty percent of Americans do not trust President Donald Trump with his authority over the nation's nuclear arsenal—the world's largest and most sophisticated—and, according to the new ABC News/Wall Street Journal poll out Tuesday, more than half worry he might order a nuclear strike "without justification." (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Poll: 60 Percent of Americans Don't Trust Trump With His Big Nuclear Button

In addition, more than half of respondents worry that president would launch nuclear strike without reasonable justification

Jon Queally

Sixty percent of Americans do not trust President Donald Trump with his authority over the nation's nuclear arsenal—the world's largest and most sophisticated—and, according to the new ABC News/Wall Street Journal poll out Tuesday, more than half worry he might order a nuclear strike "without justification."

As ABC reports: "Distrust fuels anxiety of a baseless attack. Among those who don't trust Trump with the nuclear button, 88 percent are concerned the president might spark a nuclear attack without justification, and 55 percent are "very" concerned about it. Those translate to 52 and 33 percent of all adults, respectively."

Last month, as Common Dreams reported, Trump bragged that "his" nuclear button was "much bigger & more powerful" than that of North Korea's.

The new poll out Tuesday surveyed a national sample of 1,005 adults and was conducted in both English and Spanish by landline and cell phone last week betwee January 15 and 18, 2018. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points.

 

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