Trump’s Intel Access Problem

In 1952, President Harry Truman formalized the process of offering presidential candidates access to classified briefings. He was inspired to do so from when he took office after the death of FDR in 1945; just 12 days in, the former VP learned of America’s work in developing a super-secret atomic weapon (The Manhattan Project). “There were so many things I didn’t know when I became president,” he said. He determined not to have future presidents be as much in the dark when they actually took office.

Up to now, the process has worked fine. But now, we have candidate Donald Trump awaiting trial for his theft of sensitive classified documents when he left office. Trump went to great pains to delay returning them to the government, as he was required to do. He hid them all around Mar-A-Lago, disabled security footage, and more. It’s still not clear if everything has been returned to or who has seen what. He’s on tape talking about high-level military plans against Iran to impress his audience. He shared info on nuclear subs with an Australian businessman, who then shared it with others. While in the Oval Office, he leaked highly sensitive Israeli intelligence to Russian dignitaries.  In 2021, the CIA revealed that a troubling number of our informants were suddenly turning up dead.

Knowing all of this, President Biden determined that Trump would not be given the regular intelligence briefings that ex-presidents are typically given as a courtesy. Trump’s “erratic behavior” was (rightly) cited.

But now, it’s… awkward. Per the Truman tradition, the candidate should be brought up to speed. But THIS candidate is an obvious national security risk, one that has intelligence officials deeply worried. Not to mention, he’s in deep financial hock, currently owing nearly half a billion dollars for just two of his many legal cases.

If anyone was ripe for the picking by our enemies, it’s Trump.

Of course, NOT being given the briefings will just add to his list of grievances and fuel more conspiracy theories. Biden could point to the fact that the Trump administration slow-walked his own access after the 2020 election and significantly delayed or impeded the usual transition processes (even firing the White House chief usher right before the Bidens moved in so there would be no one there to help them).

Yes, President Biden could make an excellent case right now for not providing Trump with sensitive intel. However, you just know it will be turned against him by MAGA and the right-wing media machine.

When Trump’s father Fred was in the depths of dementia, he still insisted on going to the office each day. Staffers would give him worthless piles of papers to review and sign. It kept him happy and occupied, but more importantly, he couldn’t damage the business.

This writer suggests doing something similar: gin up some fake “intel,” and put it on official-looking stationery. Not only will it keep Donald occupied, if anything leaks, we’ll know where it came from.

In the meantime, the nation won’t be at risk from his utter recklessness.

Cindy Grogan is a writer, lover of history and "Star Trek" (TOS), and hardcore politics junkie. There was that one time she campaigned for Gerald Ford (yikes), but ever since, she's been devoted to Democratic and progressive policies.