Trump revokes Biden’s access to government secrets in payback move

US President Joe Biden shakes hands with US President-elect Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on Nov. 13, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 08 February 2025
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Trump revokes Biden’s access to government secrets in payback move

  • “JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump said in a social media most stating that Biden "could not be trusted with sensitive information"
  • Trump also removed security details assigned to protect former government officials who have criticized him, including his own former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo

PALM BEACH, Florida: President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s revoking former President Joe Biden’s access to government secrets and ending the daily intelligence briefings he’s receiving in payback for Biden doing the same to him in 2021.
Trump announced his decision in a post on his social media platform shortly after he arrived at his Mar-a-Lago home and private club in Palm Beach for the weekend.
“There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings,” Trump wrote. “He 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.”
The move is the latest in a vengeance tour of Washington that Trump promised during his campaign. He has previously revoked security clearances from more than four dozen former intelligence officials who signed a 2020 letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop saga bore the hallmarks of a “Russian information operation.” He’s also revoked security details assigned to protect former government officials who have criticized him, including his own former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who faces threats from Iran, and former infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Biden didn’t immediately comment on the move.




Donald Trump's post on his Truth Social media platform, announcing his move to revoke former President Joe Biden's access to government secrets.

 

Biden ended Trump’s intelligence briefings after Trump helped spur efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and incited the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. At the time, Biden said Trump’s “erratic” behavior should prevent him from getting the intel briefings.
Asked in an interview with CBS News what he feared if Trump continued to receive the briefings, Biden said he did not want to “speculate out loud” but made clear he did not want Trump to continue having access to such information.
“I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings,” Biden said. “What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”
in 2022, federal agents searched Trump’s Florida home and seized boxes of classified records. He was indicted on dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding classified records and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back. He pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. A judge dismissed the charges, ruling the special counsel who brought them was illegally appointed, and the Justice Department gave up appeals after Trump was elected in November.
In his post, Trump cited the special counsel report last year into Biden’s handling of classified documents, saying, “The Hur Report revealed that Biden suffers from ‘poor memory’ and, even in his ‘prime,’ could not be trusted with sensitive information.”
He ended his post by saying, “I will always protect our National Security — JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Special counsel Robert Hur investigated Biden’s handling of classified information and found that criminal charges were not warranted but delivered a bitingly critical assessment of his handling of sensitive government records. The report described Biden’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.” It said Biden could not recall defining milestones in his own life such as when his son Beau died or when he served as vice president.
Trump has the right to end the briefings for Biden because it is a sitting president’s decision on whether a past president should continue to have access to classified information.
Steven Cheung, the president’s communications director, shared Trump’s post on the X social media platform and said, “Hit the road Jack and don’t you come back no more!”


US not expanding military objectives in Iran, Hegseth says

Updated 53 min 23 sec ago
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US not expanding military objectives in Iran, Hegseth says

  • Iran’s regional retaliation strengthen US alliances, Hegseth says
  • US forces destroy 30 ‌Iranian warships, including drone carrier

TAMPA, Florida: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday the United States ​was not expanding its military objectives in Iran, after President Donald Trump told Reuters the United States must be involved in choosing the next leader of Iran.
The Pentagon earlier this week said the military campaign, known as Operation Epic Fury, is focused on destroying Iran’s offensive missiles, missile production and navy, while not allowing Tehran to have a nuclear weapon.
“There’s no expansion in our objectives. We know exactly what we’re trying to achieve,” Hegseth said.
He added that Trump was “having a heck of a ‌say in who ‌runs Iran given the ongoing operation.”
In a telephone interview ​with ‌Reuters ⁠on Thursday, ​Trump said ⁠the United States would have to help pick the next person to lead the country. The US and Israeli military campaign that started on Saturday has hit targets across the country and triggered Iranian retaliatory strikes in the region as Tehran seeks to impose a high cost on the United States, Israel and their allies.
Iran has attacked countries including Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Fire crews in Bahrain extinguished a blaze at a ⁠refinery following a missile strike.
Azerbaijan became the latest country ‌drawn in, as it accused Iran of firing ‌drones at its territory and ordered its southern airspace closed ​for 12 hours.
Hegseth said by striking ‌countries in the region, Iran would only bring them closer to the United ‌States.
“It’s actually firming up the unity of the resistance in order to focus exactly where we need to,” Hegseth said.

Next phase of operations
The United States has hit more than 2,000 targets in Iran, including Iranian warships. Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, said ‌US forces had destroyed 30 Iranian warships, including an Iranian drone carrier ship earlier on Thursday.
Cooper said the United States ⁠was hitting Iran’s ⁠ability to rebuild.
“As we transition to the next phase of this operation, we will systematically dismantle Iran’s missile production capability for the future, and that’s absolutely in progress,” Cooper said, adding that it would take some time.
The US military has identified the six US Army Reserve soldiers killed when a drone slammed into a US military facility in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait.
Trump and other senior officials have warned the Iran conflict will result in more US military deaths.
Hegseth, during the press conference, said Iran was making a mistake if it believed that the United States could not sustain the ongoing war, adding that Washington had just begun to fight.
“Iran is hoping that we ​cannot sustain this, which is a really ​bad miscalculation,” Hegseth said. “We set the timeline.”