President Donald Trump would be obeyed if he ordered a nuclear strike against China, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet said Thursday, The New York Times reports.
"The answer would be yes," Admiral Scott H. Swift said when asked if he would obey such a command while at Australian National University in Canberra.
"Every member of the U.S. military has sworn an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as the commander in chief appointed over us," he said.
Tensions have been high between the U.S. and China over activity in the South China Sea. In May, a U.S. warship sailed close to a Chinese artificial island in the sea, which China claims exclusive rights to.
Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt. Charlie Brown called the question "ridiculous," and stressed that the admiral did not raise the topic himself.
"Perhaps he more forcefully could have refuted the hypothetical," Brown said. "He was trying to find an opportunity to use it to deliver a message on something positive, and that was the answer he gave on civilian control."
National Security College head and the event's host, Rory Medcalf, said afterwards that "Admiral Swift answered the question the only way a serving military officer could. It would have been a lot more controversial if he had said, no, he would not obey the commander in chief."
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