Serial victim Donald Trump has a lot of bones left to pick on his way out the door. Many of them involve his ceaseless list of grievances with the U.S. intelligence community and, more specifically, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into his 2016 campaign's ties to Russia.
All of it adds up to one giant geyser of a national security risk that could blow at any time. As it stands, Trump already has a history of publicly disclosing sensitive intelligence at will—like that time in 2017 when he welcomed his Russian besties into Oval Office and disclosed sensitive Israeli intelligence to them.
But now, as Trump fumes over his embarrassing defeat to the man he declared "the worst candidate in history," intelligence officials are furiously trying to stave off the immediate harm he can do even as they shudder over the long-term threat he represents moving forward.
At this very moment, intelligence officials are attempting to prevent Trump from declassifying a wealth of information about Russia that he believes would prove Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't want Trump to win in 2016 even though Putin has openly admitted he did. Making that information public would also compromise U.S. intelligence sources and upset U.S. allies who, in certain instances, have provided the intel.
The Washington Post's David Ignatius reports that the battle to keep the intelligence under wraps has "raged within the administration" ever since the final days leading up to Election Day. CIA Director Gina Haspel has vehemently argued against the declassification, putting her in Trump's crosshairs for the post-election vengeance purge he has already kicked off over at the Pentagon. According to Ignatius, several top administration officials along with a bipartisan group of senators have all been trying to insulate Haspel from Trump's reprisal. The effort to safeguard the intelligence may have also been part of what triggered Trump's expulsions at the Defense Department. Recently ousted Defense Secretary Mark Esper had supported and advocated for Haspel's position against making the intelligence disclosures.
The ominous news is, Senate Republicans may be the country's last line of defense against Trump's impulses, which would greatly compromise the country's national security. Those would be the same Senate Republicans who are humoring Trump's delusions that the election was stolen from him as they work to keep control of the upper chamber by prevailing in the two Georgia Senate runoffs. One senior congressional source told Ignatius: “How much do you stay quiet during the tantrum period? What damage will it do to national security? That’s a real-time discussion that’s going on.”
So far, not a peep from Senate Republicans—just a lot of Trump bootlicking.
But whatever risks Trump poses now, many of them will follow him out the door. Everything from procedures for launching nuclear weapons to U.S. intelligence-gathering methods and intelligence assets embedded in foreign governments are on the line. Trump is like a treasure trove of information who is poised to spill whatever beans will benefit him to whomever tickles his ego and humors his business interests. Shortly after Trump leaves office, he'll be on the hook for over $400 million in loans coming due—and that's just for starters.
As the Post's Shane Harris notes, Trump "checks the boxes of a classic counterintelligence risk: He is deeply in debt and angry at the U.S. government, particularly what he describes as the 'deep state' conspiracy that he says tried to stop him from winning the White House in 2016 and what he falsely claims is an illegal effort to rob him of reelection."
In other words, Trump has a lot of scores to settle and they all figure badly for U.S. national security. Plus, once he walks out the door, even fewer of his personal interests will align with those of the U.S. government—like zero, in fact.
