Donald Trump is always on the hunt for another way to hurt people who don’t clear the hurdle of only saying good things about Trump, all the time. Sometimes that’s firing them. Sometimes that’s making sure they don’t get a pension. Sometimes that’s hitting them with a racist insult. Or another racist insult. Or really … racist insults is the big thing.
But Trump has been mulling over the idea of suspending security clearances ever since news began circulating of just how many of his own White House staff had flunked the test to get those clearances in the first place. Since the spring, Trump has floated a list of names of former intelligence and law enforcement officials, some of whom did not actually have any continuing clearance in the first place, with the idea that he would remove that clearance as some kind of punishment. On Wednesday, he took the extraordinary step of claiming to remove clearance from former CIA director John Brennan and he broke every rule in the process.
Apparently, this feeling was so satisfying that Trump is just itchin’ to exercise his security-stealing finger again. And as the Washington Post reports, it’s all about the Russia investigation.
Over the past 19 months, Trump has fired or threatened to take action against nearly a dozen current and former officials associated with the inquiry, which he has labeled a “rigged witch hunt,” including former FBI director James B. Comey, former deputy attorney general Sally Yates and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
While firing Comey required Trump to having Rod Rosenstein draft an excuse letter and Trump sticking with that excuse for almost 48 hours before ‘fessing up to Lester Holt that it was all about the Russia investigation, with Brennan’s security clearance that process was accelerated. Trump merely had Sanders read a Stephen Miller-generated excuse, then immediately stepped on his own lie in an interview that same day. Apparently, Donald Trump has made the whole obstruction process much quicker. He’s the Henry Ford of the obstruction assembly line.
But the problem with Trump’s punish-’em-by-taking-away-their-clearance idea is it doesn’t actually punish anyone. It made a difference when Jared Kushner or Rob Porter couldn’t clear the lowest bar for security because they were working in the White House, and looking at classified documents came with the job. For those no longer actively in those roles, not having clearance makes no difference, because in day-to-day actions, they have no access to classified materials. The only one really hurt by Trump’s actions, is the nation.
John Brennan’s appearances on CNN are not affected by his security clearance. Neither is James Comey’s ability to kick out a book. The only situation that is affected is if the current national security team wants to consult with one of their predecessors on a critical issue and finds that consultation complicated by Trump’s actions.
And though Trump has made it clear that he can’t conceive of an issue where someone in his staff might need to talk to Brennan or Comey or McCabe or any of the others whose security he has threatened to yank, that’s because Donald Trump can’t conceive of an issue that isn’t all about Donald Trump. There are actually security concerns in the world that can’t be resolved by determining who is most loyal to Trump.
But though Trump’s clearance-based attacks are harmful, pointless, and intensely petty, he’s racing ahead with them. Because harmful, pointless, and petty is Trump’s real-life motto. Besides, it’s making Trump feel good.
Trump believes he has emerged looking strong and decisive in his escalating feud with Brennan, the aides said, adding that he shows a visceral disdain for the former CIA director when he sees him on TV.
Next comes a nickname. Oh, there is so going to be a nickname. That’ll show him.
Trump believes that Brennan is actually the secret heart of the Russia investigation, and that he set up George Papadopoulos by using CIA funds to create the appearance of a Russia connection. In the complex web of conspiracy theory popular in the Trump White House, this is tied to the “insurance policy” that is mentioned once in a text message from FBI agent Peter Strzok. Because Trump really does believe that the leadership in the CIA and FBI cooked up an elaborate scheme … in which they let him win, only to drag him down.
After all, believing that these people were doing their jobs of protecting the country suggests that there are issues that aren’t always 100 percent about Trump. Which … see step one.