Does a verified report say President Donald Trump tried to "access the nuclear codes" but was blocked by Gen. Dan Caine, as claimed by retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson? No, that's not true: There are no credible or verified reports indicating that such an incident ever occurred. While Johnson said on a podcast that there was a report of this incident, he later said in his blog that there is "no confirmation that the report is verified."
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by The Mirror US on Apr. 21, 2026, titled "Trump 'tried to access nuclear codes but was stopped by military chief.'" The opening read:
Retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson claims that during an emergency White House meeting, U.S. President Donald Trump attempted to access the nuclear codes but was allegedly blocked by General Dan Caine
This is what the article looked like on The Mirror US website at the time of writing:
(Image source: The Mirror US.)
The video
On the Apr. 21, 2026, edition (archived here) of the podcast "Judging Freedom," hosted by former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano, Johnson said it was during an emergency meeting on Apr. 18, 2026, that Trump attempted to access the nuclear codes. At the 4:42 mark, he said:
One report coming out of that meeting at the White House is that Trump wanted to use the nuclear codes, and then General Dan Caine stood up and said, "No." He invoked his privilege as the head of the military, so to speak. It was apparently quite a blow-up.
The video with Johnson can be watched here:
Johnson's blog
During his appearance on "Judging Freedom," Johnson did not label the report he mentioned as unconfirmed. He simply called it a "report." It was a different story a day later, on Apr. 21, 2026, in his blog Sonar21 (archived here). While promoting the video of the show featuring his trending comments, he said:
I have no confirmation that the report is verified, but my comment went viral.
Lead Stories previously reported on this topic in: Fact Check: Dan Caine Did NOT Storm Out of Emergency Meeting After Trump Suggested Threatening Iran With Nuclear Weapons. It is unclear whether Johnson was referencing the debunked report in this story or a separate one.
Lead Stories reached out to Johnson, but has not yet received a response.
News check
Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo! News and did not find any matching reports for "Trump tried to 'access the nuclear codes' but was blocked by Gen. Dan Caine." Had such an incident actually occurred and been confirmed by sources, major news outlets would have widely reported it.
