Yesterday, it was revealed that advisors close to President Trump tried to convince him last year to block former President Obama from receiving the intelligence briefings he is entitled to, as all former presidents are.
If carried out, the plot would have undermined the tradition of the peaceful, non-vindictive transfer of power. Republicans and Democrats are expected to exchange the White House without abusing the powers of the executive branch to inflict partisan damage on each other. Clearly, the sycophants and sociopaths Trump dragged into 1600 Pennslyvania Avenue alongside him have little respect for this nation’s longstanding values.
And while then-National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster eventually convinced Trump not to go through with the heinous partisan scheme, the mere fact that it was floated inside the halls of the White House is serious cause from concern. One can only imagine what other outlandish, destructive ideas have been considered inside Trump’s Oval Office.
Now, presumably due to the backlash of bad press over the Obama story, Trump has taken to Twitter to rant about “Fake News” and insist that he not only never discussed the revocation of President Obama’s intelligence briefings, but that he never even thought about it.
Of course, at this point in his lie-ridden tenure, Trump’s credibility is zero. No rational person would believe anything that comes out of his mouth or that he types with his little fingers. Ironically then, his denial of the Obama story makes it seem even more credible.
Fake News, of which there is soooo much (this time the very tired New Yorker) falsely reported that I was going to take the extraordinary step of denying Intelligence Briefings to President Obama. Never discussed or thought of!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2018
In recent weeks, Trump demonstrated that he is not above compromising national security for the sake of settling a petty score. He revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan in retaliation for perfectly fair criticisms that Brennan leveled at the administration.
Usually, top-ranking government officials are allowed to retain their clearance in case their consultation is needed on important issues in the future. Trump, not surprisingly, cares little for the value of experience and institutional memory and lashed out at Brennan to soothe his own ego.
It makes perfect sense, given the Brennan debacle and what we know about Trump, that he would have given serious thought to blocking Obama’s clearance. Every day he is allowed to remain president our country slides further into ignominy and grows less safe.