It looks like John Brennan may still have his security clearance. Or not.
Lawyers on my Twitter feed and in court have been debating the status of Donald Trump’s tweets. Are they presidential statements? Must they be archived? (Probably yes) Can he block people? (Probably no) What do they mean for the government employees who might have to carry out a presidential order? (Who knows?)
But in the 13 days since Sanders read Trump’s 571-word statement to the press, Brennan hasn’t heard anything from the White House, the CIA or any other representative of the administration. And he’s received no formal notification that his clearance has been pulled.
This happened with Trump’s tweets about transgender people in the military. I think some things may have happened – I haven’t followed this because there are simply too many uproars on which to keep current. My general understanding is that there have been some unfortunate tweaks, like lessening their medical benefits, but transgender people are still welcome in the military. Please correct me if I’ve got that wrong, preferably with links.
It’s happening with North Korea. Fortunately, the military skipped over the “Little Rocket Man” and nuclear threat tweets. But national security Twitter has been pointing out that whatever Trump did in Singapore means nothing, and Kim Jong Un knows that and is continuing his nuclear weapons development. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been humoring Trump (or participating in the folie à deux) and gaslighting the rest of us that Kim is about to hand over 60% of his nuclear weapons.
It’s good that the rest of the government has better sense than our President*. It’s not good that the President* is almost totally unmoored from the rest of the government. And it’s making me crazy.
Open thread, hopefully for better thoughts.