Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Will President Trump Disclose National Security Secrets When He Leaves Office?

President Trump speaks at the White House on Nov. 5, 2020.Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford.


WASHINGTON - As president, Donald Trump selectively revealed highly classified information to attack his adversaries, gain political advantage and to impress or intimidate foreign governments, in some cases jeopardizing U.S. intelligence capabilities. As an ex-president, there's every reason to worry he will do the same, thus posing a unique national security dilemma for the Biden administration, current and former officials and analysts said. 

All presidents exit the office with valuable national secrets in their heads, including the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, intelligence-gathering capabilities - including assets deep inside foreign governments - and the development of new and advanced weapon systems. 

But no new president has ever had to fear that his predecessor might expose the nation's secrets as President-elect Joe Biden must with Trump, current and former officials said. Not only does Trump have a history of disclosures, he 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 believes 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. 

Read more .... 

WNU Editor: Will President Trump "spill the beans" when he leaves office thereby risking American lives and committing treason? I see zero evidence of that. But according to the above Washington Post columnist there is proof that he may just do that ....

.... Not only does Trump have a history of disclosures, he 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 believes 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. 

As I explained in this post, money is not President Trump's weakness .... Is President Trump Facing Bankruptcy? (October 27, 2020), President Trump's assets are multiple times more than his debts.  Money is not a factor here.

And as for revealing national security secrets. I have been doing this blog for 13 years, and following U.S. politics even longer. When I compare security leaks in this administration to others .... even with all the leakers in this White House, this was one of the best when it came to keeping national secrets to itself, and doubly so when it came to keeping military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (and elsewhere) on a need to know basis.

In comparison to the Obama administration of which Joe Biden was an integral part of it, I lost count over the years on how many times sensitive intel was being leaked to the press that was done to make  the administration look good. But as bad as that was, it paled to its lack of secrecy on US military operations against ISIS in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan ..... from publicizing troop and equipment deployments, to even telling the press on what their military goals were for a certain time. Thank God Defense Secretary Mattis put a stop to that. 

And speaking of Joe Biden and national security leaks. His son's lap top exposed how vulnerable Joe Biden is to being blackmailed and compromised when it comes to national security. No mention of that by the above Washington Post commentator. But that is the point of this article. To accuse President Trump of being a risk, while hiding the fact that it is Joe Biden who is the real risk.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"from publicizing troop and equipment deployments, to even telling the press on what their military goals were for a certain time. Thank God Defense Secretary Mattis put a stop to that"

And Mattis did not like Trump when it was the BamBam & Bite Me admin that did all the leaking?!?