United States President Donald Trump has announced that he is stripping former President Joe Biden of his security clearance and ending his daily intelligence briefing in his latest act of retribution against his rivals.
Trump said on Friday that there was “no need” for Biden to continue to have access to classified information and that he was taking the action in response to a similar move by the Democrat against him.
“He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump also suggested that Biden could not be trusted with sensitive information after a report about his predecessor’s handling of classified material by special counsel Robert Hur described the Democrat’s memory as “fuzzy” and having “significant limitations.
In a callback to his catchphrase on the reality TV show “The Apprentice,” Trump added in capitals: “JOE, YOU’RE FIRED.”
Biden cut Trump off from intelligence briefings in response to Trump’s efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.
“I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings,” Biden had said in an interview with CBS News shortly after taking office in 2021.
“What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”
Former US presidents have traditionally been granted access to intelligence briefings, though access is provided at the sole discretion of the incumbent president.
Trump was charged with four criminal counts over his efforts to cancel the results of the vote, including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy against the rights of citizens, before prosecutors dropped the case following his re-election.
Trump’s administration has removed the security clearances of dozens of critics and rivals, including Mark Milley, a retired army general who privately described the Republican as “fascist to the core”, and more than 50 former intelligence officials who signed a letter that wrongly suggested that emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop were part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
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