kleinbl00 come tell me why this isn't a problem or is the death of democracy pls.
Law and custom? There was no law against running for president as many terms as you wanted until FDR won a third and fourth term. At that point, the custom of only running two terms was permanently enshrined into law. Retired intelligence officials customarily retain their security clearances unless there are reasons for them not to. There is no law insisting on their right. As former presidents are often diplomatically handy to keep around, it makes sense to retain their security clearance. Much of the behind-the-scenes negotiations with North Korea were accomplished by Clinton and Clinton's officials well into Obama's second term, for example. However, there's nothing that says they have to keep them. Trump yanked John Brennan's security clearance over a Twitter slapfight. Pretty sure that was just a straight-up executive order, no congressional oversight necessary. And considering how angry Brennan is most of the time, I doubt he would have let it stand if he had any recourse. Should we ever make it out of this alive, I suspect that a lot of the customs we've banked on to keep our executive branch in order will become laws, much like we gained the 22nd Amendment shortly after FDR passed. One of The Week's columnists observed that so much of our governance is dictated by custom, not law, and that Trump's entire power is his utter disregard for custom. However, it would be the mildest break of custom, and no violation of law, to yank the security clearances of every single person associated with this administration the minute his successor's hand leaves the bible on Inauguration Day.
If Dems win the Senate and the Presidency they will be passing a lot of laws very quickly. What they need is a commission on hucksterism and abuse of power so that they can craft laws that make it very difficult for anyone to do this ever again. I think where they'll run into problems is trying to legislate some independence at the Justice Dept. The Courts have basically said that every political appointee works for the president and can be fired at will, and that this is baked into the constitution. No matter how big a wave the Dems can pull off I just think the Big Sort has more or less made new constitutional amendments DOA for the time being. I think where they can have a big impact is in disclosure laws, nepotism laws, limiting executive fiat, and so on. And yes, Trump has shown that the president has the full authority to ban (or grant) any security clearance he pleases, and there's no other sane person in America who would give Kushner security clearance. Trump's own DoJ told Kush to fuck off until he intervened. Even if they didn't revoke Big Don's credentials, he would no longer have the right to declassify whatever he wants willy nilly as he can now. We're going to have a lot of spring cleaning in 2021, god willing.
There is no doubt Trump will make use of the information, share it with his cronies, and let national secrets slip out of his fat face while golfing at Mar-a-lago... I mean, he can't NOT share privileged information... it's what he does. The issue is that Trump is an unwitting Putin stooge. Putin has him so surrounded by embedded ears, that Jared and Don Jr and Ivanka will absolutely share the top secret info they are privy to with their Russian friends and connections... who all work directly for Putin's machine. So the next President goes back to George Bush's in-person-only PDBs? No documentary evidence to be shared? They stonewall Trump when he asks for the PDB, because nowhere is it enshrined that his request to see it be granted? It is a REQUEST. Not a requirement. It's troubling that Trump's cronies have a direct pipeline to Top Secret security clearance information for the remainder of Trump's pathetic life, even after he leaves office. The swamp is inside now, and we can't get rid of them.
I genuinely believe that Trump is a puppet of Putin, and I also genuinely believe Trump himself has no idea. When shown the actual numbers of deaths of Americans due to COVID, in that Aussie interview last week, he was genuinely flummoxed for a moment. I believe he had never seen that information. His aides don't tell him anything he doesn't want to hear, and only tell him good news. ALL of his aides and family are completely compromised by Russia and China, however. So the ONLY information Trump acts on (outside of Fox News) is the bad information, fed to his closest team, by the Russian operatives running them. I don't think Trump has any idea that he is completely under Putin's thumb. Seriously.
I don't doubt that any of this is true. I want to believe it isn't true. I secretly hope this is true. It reads like an amazing spy novel... or like a season of The Americans on a much more insidious level. If it is even 10% true, our republic is in more trouble than any of us realize.
US History classes in 15 years are going to be REEEEEAAAAALLLY interesting. I kinda expect the whole Trump cadre to move out of the US at some point in the next few years, to a place that is more "friendly" to their type of business dealings and friends. Oh Don Jr and Ivanka and the rest of the reprobates will still nominally have addresses in NYC, and gladly accept checks from Trump properties in the US... but I expect they will live the majority of their time outside of the US borders. In ... erm ... "friendlier" territories ... That's the model many ex-Dictator's families follow....
I certainly hope so... but my experience 30 years ago didn't include Japanese internment camps, Black Wall Street, or Stonewall... so I have little hope that 15 years will be enough time for dust to settle and truth to come out.US History classes in 15 years are going to be REEEEEAAAAALLLY interesting.
Same with me... but I think information is different nowadays. We are no longer solely beholden to the view of a couple of Texas conservatives who approve all history books in the USA. Once Trump dies, I expect the FOIA requests will come fast and hard, and we will see some really interesting analyses of the full scope of his misdeeds, who were his accomplices, and the organizations that worked behind the scenes to control him... Heck, we already have much of that for Paul Manafort, who was Trump's fixer in Russia...
I will agree with you that Trump doesn't think he's a puppet. He definitely does what he can for his good buddies the Russians, though. Dubinin himself arranged his first visit. I'm also entirely certain that Melania Trump is an FSB asset and has been since college. I doubt she's the only hot Slavic girl the FSB dangled in front of Donald Trump but she's the one that stuck. In exchange for tempting American businessmen her family got visas and she probably got an allowance until someone took the bait. But they've got something on Trump, too. He's a man of pure Id between a carrot and a stick.