US wants to make it easier for Donald Trump to launch a nuclear attack

The nuclear strategy for the United States which is constantly under review is set to be updated for modern global threats.

Draft guidelines which have been sent to Donald Trump for approval, would allow the president greater latitude in the use of nuclear warheads.

For much of recent history, the US has threatened the 'first-use' of nuclear weapons in rare circumstances such as a biological attack on American soil.

But the new drafts would see these parameters expanded to include retaliation against other forms of attack such as cybercrimes to target US power supplies and communications.

The Nuclear Posture Review was put together at the Pentagon and is now being studied at the White House ahead of publication in the coming weeks.

The draft document, first obtained by Huffpost, reads: "We must look reality in the eye and see the world as it is, not as we wish it to be."

It continues that the US must realign its "nuclear policy with a realistic assessment of the threats we face today and the uncertainties regarding the future security environment."

Much of the document reads similar to the last review under the Obama administration, but the major differences are what are classified as "extreme circumstances".

In the Trump draft, those "circumstances could include significant non-nuclear strategic attacks" including "attacks on the US, allied, or partner civilian population or infrastructure, and attacks on US or allied nuclear forces, their command and control, or warning and attack assessment capabilities".

Cyberattacks have already targeted several countries and major companies in recent years, with their origins often in Russia, China or North Korea.

These have included the attacks on the British National Health Service and the technology giant Sony.

The revised document also continue the development of new small-scale nuclear weapons, some which had already started life in the Obama era.

The ongoing row between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump has raised the possibility that a nuclear attack could take place.

Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Pyongyang over the past 12 months in what has played out as escalating game of verbal jibes between himself and the Kim Jong-un regime.

Fresh UN sanctions and ongoing North Korea missile tests have ratcheted up already high tensions between the hermit nation and the US.

Over the summer, Trump threatened North Korea with "fire and fury" if it continued its nuclear missile developments.

This prompted angry responses from Pyongyang, including the state-run newspaper calling for Trump to face the death sentence.

And in early 2018, after Kim boated he had a red nuclear button on his desk, Trump hit back claiming that his button was "bigger and more powerful".

The North responded by calling Trump a "spasm of a lunatic".