US President Donald Trump has said he is revoking Joe Biden’s security clearance and access to daily intelligence briefings after his predecessor did the same to him four years ago.
“There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“JOE, YOU’RE FIRED,” the Republican added in a reference to his catchphrase on the reality TV show The Apprentice.
Trump has already revoked the security clearance of more than four dozen former intelligence officials whom he accused of meddling in the 2020 election in Biden’s favour.
Trump posted on Friday evening that Biden “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”.
He said Biden “could not be trusted with sensitive information”, citing a justice department inquiry into the Democrat’s storage of classified files, which decided not to press charges and said Biden had a poor memory. Biden rejected that characterisation at the time.
Biden, who has taken some time away from the limelight since leaving his post as president last month, did not immediately respond to the comments.
In 2021, Biden stopped Trump from receiving classified intelligence briefings, the first time an ex-president had ever been denied such information, which is traditionally given as a courtesy.
He justified the move by saying Trump could not be trusted because of his “erratic behaviour”, even before the 2021 US Capitol riot, which Democrats accused Trump of inciting in the last days of his first term.
“What value is giving him an intelligence briefing?” Biden said at the time. “What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”
Trump has taken steps to revoke the security clearances and protections of other top officials linked to the Biden administration since returning to office.
Among those whose security clearance and detail has been retracted is former top US military commander Mark Milley, a vocal critic of Trump.
The new Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, has also ordered Milley’s “conduct” to be investigated, and his military grade to be reviewed.
Trump has also revoked the security detail of former chief medical adviser to the president, Anthony Fauci, who led the US response to Covid-19.
Trump said at the time the decision was “very standard” and that it was not possible for everyone to have security protection for the rest of their life because they worked for the government.
The president has also ordered that the security clearance of dozens of former intelligence officials, including two ex-CIA directors, be revoked.
They signed a letter in 2020 implying that reports about a laptop owned by Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, were a Russian hoax.
But the computer, whose trove of data contained sordid details of Hunter Biden’s private life and raised questions about his business dealings, was real.
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