Trump’s First Move Against the Deep State: Revoking Security Clearances

There’s a certain poetic justice when powerful creatures of the Leviathan who used their immense influence to help sway public opinion in the critical hours of a presidential election are stripped of the coveted badges that name them members of this elite cadre of men.

That is just what President Donald Trump did in an executive order signed on Inauguration Day, yanking the security clearances of 51 former intelligence officials who signed a letter that helped to silence the Hunter Biden laptop story just before the 2020 election. This includes John Brennan, James Clapper, Leon Pannetta, Michael Hayden, and yes, John Bolton.

“For those who say the penalty will impair their livelihoods, I recall one of Secretary of State George Schultz’s maxims: trust is the coin of the realm. Well, If you violate the trust you forfeit the coin,” noted R. Jordan Prescott, a private defense contractor who knows of what he speaks. 

There are 2.9 million (by last count) security clearance holders in the country and a backlog of almost 300,000 waiting to get into this club. But if you live and work in the Imperial City, you know that the above members form a VIP circle in which they have been able to trade their credentials and access to America’s secrets, along with their years at the top of the federal food chain, for very lucrative positions on the outside, fashioned to influence power inside. The clearance is the calling card. It’s like taking away a cowboy’s gun. This hits them where it hurts.