‘He’s a loudmouth’: Trump hits back at Brennan over ‘drunk on power’ remark
Tension between the White House and the intelligence community continues to escalate
US President Donald Trump continued on Saturday to broadcast caustic criticism of former CIA director John Brennan, three days after stripping him of his security clearance.
“Has anyone looked at the mistakes that John Brennan made while serving as CIA director?” Trump tweeted on Saturday morning. “He will go down as easily the WORST in history & since getting out, he has become nothing less than a loudmouth, partisan, political hack who cannot be trusted with the secrets to our country!”
Trump’s comments, certain to escalate tension between the White House and the intelligence community that already borders on open hostility, appeared to have been made in reaction to an interview Brennan gave MSNBC on Friday.
Trump was “using a security clearance of a former CIA director as a pawn in his public relations strategy”, Brennan said, adding: “I think is just so reflective of somebody who, quite frankly, I don’t want to use this term maybe, but he’s drunk on power. He really is, and I think he’s abusing the powers of that office.”
The president’s developing policy of using the withdrawal of security clearance as a sign of disapproval or punishment is causing alarm in the capital, according to The Washington Post.