Monday 20 August 2018

Trump takes on the Washington elite

How Trump must hate all the former intelligence officials who are coming out of the woodwork to condemn his decision to revoke John Brennan's seurity clearance. There are now so many of them that you would have thought Trump would begin to wonder what he has taken on. Well, this is precisely what he said he would do when he was campaigning. He wanted to clean up the "Washington swamp" and take control from the elite establishment who, in his view, represent no one but themselves and their careers. I have mixed feelings about this story which is getting bigger by the day. Trump has tweeted that John Brennan was the worst CIA director in history. That's not true of course. Brennan was a CIA career intelligence officer who performed pretty smartly as the boss of the Langley organisation under Obama and helped mastermind the tracking down and killing of Osama bin Laden. It may have taken ten years but it was one hundred per cent successful. But since Trump came to power Brennon has been mouthing off against him and not holding back with his insults. The main reason why I think this has been poor judgment by Brennan is because he is making life difficult for the person who is the current CIA director. Gina Haspel would have worked with him at some point in her CIA career. Trump agreed to appoint her on the recommendation of Mike Pompeo. She had been Pompeo's deputy. Now that Brennan is becoming Trump's third most hated figure. Robert Mueller is his number one enemy, and James Comey a close second, Gina Haspel must be cursing Brennan. Every time he opens his mouth to attack Trump, she must be sending off emails to the White House to reassure them that she is loyal and getting on with her job. But perhaps Trump is starting to think he may have appointed the wrong person. He shouldn't associate Haspel with Brennan because she worked most closely with Pompeo but Trump is suspicious of all spies. Brennan is definitely persona non grata. Brennan says he might sue Trump for removing his security clearance. Well I don't think that's going to help. Everyone should calm down. The fact is, no doubt for all the right reasons in his view, Brennan is making a public spectacle of himself and that doesn't sit well with his previous office as director of the CIA. For Gina Haspel's sake he should stop berating Trump and keep a dignified silence. As for his security clearance, he is no longer CIA director and is a private citizen. I fail to see why he should continue to have access to top secret intelligence.

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