NY Times: No Checks on President's Nuclear Decisions

With questions swirling over how much power presidential candidates have in the deployment of nuclear weapons, the answer is chilling: it appears to be limitless.

And that power even appears to buck the Constitution.

"The president has an awesome authority," The New York Times' William Broad and David Sanger report.

"The president's authority over nuclear decision-making challenges the Constitution's clear declaration that only Congress holds the power to declare war."

Not even the secretary of defense can "refuse or disobey" a presidential order to fire nukes, according to one expert The Times spoke to.

The issue has become a hot one in the presidential race as some pundits worry about Donald Trump's rapid-fire temperament and whether it would translate to an itchy finger on the nuclear button.

Last March on MSNBC, Trump said he "would never take any of my cards off the table," in the use of nuclear weapons if the country was struck by the Islamic State.

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