Omarosa and Paul Manafort are occupying far too many headlines for the liking of Donald Trump, American president. So it's time for some next-level Mean Girls behavior from our large, adult leader. What better way to pull the nation's eyes away from The Omarosa Tapes or Manafort's $18,500 python-skin jacket than following through on his threat to yank the security clearances of a former national security official who has criticized him?

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The date on President Trump's statement about revoking John Brennan's security clearance? July 26. Three weeks ago. I guess it's just a coincidence that the White House decided to announce this as they struggle to deal with the fallout from Omarosa's book. pic.twitter.com/c6TvfmOD9e — Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 15, 2018

As CNN's Kaitlan Collins pointed out, the letter is dated three weeks ago. Does that mean Brennan's clearance was yanked a few weeks back? That the letter was drawn up but not put in force until now? Either way, Trump is clearly taking punitive action against a political opponent because that person criticized him publicly. You can tell because the list of others in the clearance-revoke crosshairs—supplied by Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders—are all also prominent Trump critics:

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JUST IN —> @PressSec just announced that President Trump is revoking the security clearance of ex-CIA Director John Brennan and is reviewing the clearances of Comey, Clapper, Hayden, Yates, Strzok, Page, Rice, and Orr. — Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) August 15, 2018

Now, Brennan is by no means a particularly sympathetic figure. As director of the CIA, he oversaw a period where agency staffers spied on Senate Intelligence Committee staff who were investigating the agency's torture practices under the Bush administration. This included breaking into their emails. Still, it would be better if the President of the United States did not engage in petty retribution against political dissenters, especially when former intelligence chiefs maintain their clearances after leaving office so that their successors can turn to them for advice in tough situations.

But perhaps the most striking element is a paragraph detailing the reasoning here from Mr. Donald J. Trump.

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Per pooler @lizcgoodwin, the White House just released the President's statement on Brennan. This is the most remarkable graf pic.twitter.com/eIs3dQVdxu — Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) August 15, 2018

So Brennan should not have access to highly classified material because he makes "unfounded and outrageous allegations," has "wild outbursts on the internet and and television," and is prone to "lying" and "increasingly frenzied commentary"?



He doth project too much.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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