{"id":326287,"date":"2026-04-22T06:56:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T06:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=326287"},"modified":"2026-04-23T05:42:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:42:43","slug":"did-donald-trump-request-nuclear-codes-for-a-civilization-ending-strike-against-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=326287","title":{"rendered":"Did Donald Trump request nuclear codes for a civilization-ending strike against Iran?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Leo Hohmann \u2013 Leo\u2019s Newsletter April 21, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>President Donald Trump was said by a former CIA analyst to have requested a nuclear code during a heated exchange in a White House meeting with top national security aides on the night of Saturday, April 18.<\/p>\n<p>The original source of this report, Larry Johnson, appeared on an April 20 podcast hosted by former Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano. You can watch the video below in which Johnson made the claim (fast forward to the 4:35 mark).<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/geWpX8w7BNU?si=_V40ZvNS_3abEiEA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n&#8212;<\/div>\n<p>Let me start by saying, this is a very serious allegation from a very serious person.<\/p>\n<p>Larry Johnson is not just any podcast schmuck whose claims can be summarily dismissed or ignored.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s a former CIA analyst who later served as deputy director of the U.S. State Department\u2019s Office of Counterterrorism from 1989 to 1993.<\/p>\n<p>Two days after the fact, Johnson\u2019s claim is still being talked about and passed around online. When a bombshell story the deep state doesn\u2019t want out goes viral like that, a legacy media outlet can always be counted on to run an article saying it was baseless and false. Nothing to see here, move along.<\/p>\n<p>Enter Newsweek. It posted a nearly <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/donald-trump-nuclear-codes-11857229\">600-word article<\/a><\/strong> today, April 21, in which it quoted a \u201cWhite House spokesperson\u201d saying Johnson\u2019s claim was false. As if any White House spokesperson would corroborate such a story even if it were true. If they had confirmed the story, I can guarantee you they\u2019d have been fired immediately, and then crucified in the media to the extent that they\u2019d never get another job in Washington as long as they lived.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson should have cited his evidence for such a claim. I don\u2019t like it when things are just thrown out there, with no citation. But who knows what types of consequences he faced if he had said anything more specific than what he said in that April 20 podcast.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, Newsweek did confirm that a high-level meeting of Trump\u2019s national security team did take place Saturday night at the White House. And the look on General Caine\u2019s face as he exited did appear dire. But exactly what was discussed at the meeting and whether there was an intense moment over whether nukes should be used against Iran, we may never know. Or perhaps we will find out the truth about the April 18 meeting some years after Trump is out of office, or even deceased.<\/p>\n<p>One thing specifically mentioned in the Newsweek article that I disagree with is that the military has no ability to stop a president from giving an order for a nuclear strike. While technically this is true, it\u2019s the military that holds the cards and it\u2019s the military that has to execute the president\u2019s order, so if the military officers believe they are being given an illegal order, they absolutely have the right, and the duty, to disobey.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, we are dealing with a president who just two weeks ago threatened to end an entire civilization, a threat that many took as a reference to nuclear annihilation. This same president\u2019s mental capabilities have been widely called into question in recent days since that statement and other bizarre statements have come from Trump\u2019s mouth and keyboard.<\/p>\n<p>There was also a mainstream media report last week, from the generally pro-Trump <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>, that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/trump-kept-room-during-operation-154529228.html\">Trump had to be physically removed from the White House situation room<\/a><\/strong> during the downed-pilot rescue mission over Iran on Good Friday. He \u201cscreamed at aides for hours\u201d and was then \u201ckept out of the room\u201d while his team was given minute-by-minute updates, according to the WSJ report.<\/p>\n<p>Does this sound like a man who would hesitate to order a civilization-ending nuclear attack on a country and people that have frustrated his efforts to conquer them at every turn?<\/p>\n<p>Again, I\u2019m not saying this controversy happened. I wasn\u2019t there. And the source of the story did not give verifiable details. All I am suggesting is that Newsweek is not a reliable source to investigate the validity of Johnson\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n<p>But this much I do know: Larry Johnson is not known for spewing lies or outright fabrications. I\u2019ve been watching him for years in interviews with Napolitano and others and found him to be an extremely reliable and credible source.<\/p>\n<p>If it comes down to his word against some anonymous White House staffer, it\u2019s no contest as to who I would believe.<\/p>\n<p>And the fact that a major legacy (read lapdog) media outlet like Newsweek had to run cover for the deep state to \u201cdebunk\u201d this story tells me it is more than likely true.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Leo\u2019s Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, <a href=\"https:\/\/leohohmann.substack.com\/subscribe\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>consider becoming a free or paid subscriber<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/leohohmann.substack.com\/p\/did-donald-trump-request-nuclear\">Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source of claim is not one who can be easily dismissed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39267,"featured_media":198872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39267"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326288,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326287\/revisions\/326288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/198872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}