It’s hard to run a superpower when the person with the highest security clearance is also the highest security risk. jonathanchait writes
Photo: Alexander Shcherbak/TASS In May 2017, Donald Trump hosted Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and then–Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak for a friendly chat in the Oval Office. There, he promised his guests that, having just fired FBI director James Comey, he now had a free hand to establish chummy relations. Trump also casually shared a highly classified intelligence secret, one that blew up a sensitive Israeli counterterrorist operation.
The first and most benign is that Trump was deemed too sloppy and undisciplined to hold a secret that, if blown, would get an American asset killed. There is evidence for this possibility. The president has held open-air war-room meetings at Mar-a-Lago, almost inviting Chinese spies to eavesdrop. He has given classified information to more than two dozen officials who failed to obtain proper security clearances.
The second interpretation is much worse. That interpretation would be that American officials decided Trump was too compromised by Russia to be trusted with a secret like a high-level spy in Russia.
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