Dating back to the cold war, voters have stubbornly clung to the image of Republicans as unflinching patriots and Democrats as feckless security risks. That was the political subtext of the angry chants of “Lock her up” at Donald Trump campaign rallies, which were often led by future felon and defrocked national security adviser Michael Flynn.

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Even with Trump in the Oval Office, these cockamamie conceptions of which party is more likely to safeguard the nation have persisted. A Quinnipiac University national poll last August found that by 48% to 40%, voters believe the Republicans would do a better job of handling national security.

In truth, Trump is “the loose lips sink ships” president. It is not just his Russian rhapsody or his paternal love for Kim Jong-un. If the Duchy of Grand Fenwick wanted to steal America’s secrets, Trump would probably oblige.

Less than a week after the inauguration, Sally Yates, the acting attorney general, warned the White House Flynn was a security risk potentially subject to Russian blackmail. Instead of having the national security adviser frogmarched to the sidewalk, Trump allowed him to soldier on at the center of national security decision-making for another 18 days.

Then there was the Oval Office moment in May 2017 when Trump the Blabbermouth sold out Israel. Bragging about foiling a plot by the Islamic State in a meeting with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, Trump inadvertently revealed a major Israeli espionage operation. Russian generosity meant that this information was almost certainly shared with its Iranian allies.

The New York Times reported last October that Trump regularly speaks with friends on an insecure iPhone that is closely monitored by the Chinese. A president with the self-awareness of a rutabaga would have avoided the kind of careless conduct for which he castigated Hillary Clinton.

In fairness, Trump condemned the Times story as “incorrect” and “soooo wrong”. But Trump does not exactly live up to Diogenes’ standard as a connoisseur of the truth.

The president was equally forthright a month ago when he unequivocally denied that he intervened in any way to get a permanent security clearance for his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

But, to use Watergate lingo, that denial became “inoperative” this week with a new bombshell report from the Times. In May 2018, Trump ordered the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, to grant Kushner a high-level clearance despite the opposition of career intelligence officials.

Kelly’s response was a microcosm of his timorous tenure: the retired marine four-star general meekly complied with the president’s unprecedented demand and then bravely wrote a memo to the files. The former White House counsel Donald McGahn also recorded his objections on paper.

Deciphering the most alarming aspect of the Kushner Clearance Caper is akin to ranking the suspects in Murder on the Orient Express.

There are, of course, Trump’s flagrant lies, echoed by first daughter Ivanka Trump. The president’s deliberate undermining of proper security procedures should also trouble all Americans (including overzealous prosecutors) who take seriously the legal requirements of secrecy.

But what remains particularly chilling is the uncertainty about which aspects of Kushner’s life and real-estate career frightened the intelligence community. The odds suggest it all began in 2007 when Jared, desperate to impress his recently imprisoned father, grossly overpaid $1.8bn for a Manhattan office tower with the eerily appropriate address of 666 Fifth Avenue.

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Burdened with enormous debt and hard-pressed to even cover the interest, the Kushner family searched the globe for a gullible … er … willing partner. Finally, the family was financially saved last August when Brookfield Asset Management signed a 99-year lease on 666 Fifth.

But House investigators recently discovered that one of the firms that would benefit from a controversial nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia was Brookfield Asset Management, which now owns Westinghouse Electric. Jared – best buddies with a certain Saudi crown prince closely associated with a bone saw – has been a major backer of this explosive nukes-to-Riyadh proposal.

This is just one of many possible reasons why Jared flunked Security Clearance 101. But beyond the raging incompetence and flagrant nepotism of this presidency, there remains the mystery of why voters and Republicans in Congress are so tolerant of Trump’s cavalier dismissal of national security.