As an unhinged, demented Donald Trump continues to go verbally nuclear around the war in Iran, the very thought of his erratic, tiny fingers anywhere near the button for the nuclear codes sends cold war shivers down my spine.

I have worried about this particular Donald-driven doomsday scenario for a decade now.

From the moment this deranged, incompetent, ill-informed reality TV show host was improbably elected in November 2016, the idea of a President Trump in proximity to nuclear bombs exploded in my head, embedding its toxic fears deep into my brain.

The doomsday clock was ticking once again.

Dr Strangelove 

On New Year’s Eve 2016, my husband Hersh and I decided to stay home, open a bottle of champagne, and watch Stanley Kubrick’s black comedy about nuclear weapons, Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the  Bomb. With the ominous reality of Trump being sworn in as president rapidly approaching, it seemed an appropriate film choice.

The truth is, having caught a cold war chill I have never shaken, I have never stopped worrying about the bomb. The thought of electing an unhinged man as president with access to the nuclear codes made me very anxious. 

The plot of Dr. Strangelove, released in January 1964, suggested that a mentally deranged American general, Jack D. Ripper could order a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union without consulting anyone, including the president. As I watched the film’s final iconic scene of  Major T.J. “King” Kong, played by Slim Pickens, joyously riding the nuclear bomb to his death, hootin’ and hollerin’ as he waves his cowboy hat, it wasn’t a stretch to imagine Trump in the same scenario.

For 10 years, Dr Strangelove has haunted me.

Now that Cold War satire feels more like a documentary.

It took a madman like Trump’s second term and his current crazed escalating threats about “Bombing Iran back to the Stone Ages” to bring that movie back into high relief and raise my stress levels to Def Con 2.

General Curtis LeMay (L) was the role model for Kubricks mad general Jack D Ripper in Dr Strangelove, (R) Slim Pickens as Major TJ “King” Kong

Ironically, the originator of that remark, “Bombing them back to the stone ages” came from that cold war warrior, General Curtis Le May in reference to North Vietnam. The former Air Force Chief of Staff was the role model in Dr. Strangelove for the heavy-jowled, cigar-clenched between his teeth General Jack D. Ripper, who sends nuclear-armed B-52s against the Soviet Union all on his own because he has become completely paranoid. And psychotic.

Le May’s aggressive pro-nuclear stance was legendary.

During the early Cold War years, as head of Strategic Air Command, LeMay was regarded with a combination of respect and abject terror. Armed U.S. bombers were airborne round the clock, and the nation’s capacity for devastating nuclear retaliation was unquestioned.

His policy-if a Soviet attack seemed likely, he would “knock the shit out of them before they got off the ground.”

Sound familiar.

During World War II, LeMay was a legend. He directed the devastating firebombing of Tokyo aimed at crushing Japanese resistance and believed in winning wars through maximum rapid violence.

The celebrity general on the cover of Time Magazine in August 1945 who was brilliantly and heroically profiled, had become a demonic clown in the eyes of many Americans by the 1960’s.

Referring to the Vietnam war LeMay declared that if all else failed, the U.S. had the capability to “bomb the North Vietnamese back to the stone age” and to “destroy every work of man in North VietNam if that is what it takes.” Such outbursts turned even formerly sympathetic military opinion against him.

General LeMay ended his career, becoming George Wallace’s running mate for President in 1968.

The grandparents to the MAGA movement.

Today, Trump’s threats seem to escalate with each new post he makes on social media, and the nuclear bomb isn’t out of his realm of thinking. His unhinged, vulgar Easter Post was obscene and evidence of a severely disturbed man.

Yet with a single phone call, the commander-in-chief has virtually unlimited powers to rain down nuclear weapons on any “ perceived” adversarial regime and country at any time.

The scary thing is that there are no checks and balances.

The President has absolute control. There is no advice and consent by the Senate. No second-guessing by the Supreme Court.

Trump, who likes to say he doesn’t spend a lot of time conferring with others ( “my primary consultant is myself”–would be free to launch a civilization-ending nuclear war on his own any time he chose.

America failed to heed Stanley Kubrick’s warning. Trump is proof. 

With his temperament, Donald Trump is an object of mass destruction.