The president’s decision to strip the former CIA director of his access to intelligence has drawn widespread criticism

Donald Trump’s decision to revoke the security clearance of the former CIA director John Brennan was deemed an “unprecedented” use of executive power by a president intent on using his office to settle personal scores.

While the White House sought to paint Brennan as a partisan figure, the president has ignited an avalanche of criticism from national security officials across both sides of the aisle.

In announcing the move, the White House said Brennan, a vocal critic of Trump, “has a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility”.

“At this point in my administration, any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr Brennan are now outweighed by the risk posed by his erratic conduct and behavior,” the president said in a statement.

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The moment marked the culmination of an escalating feud between Trump, who has demonstrated a penchant for lashing out at criticism, and Brennan, a career intelligence official who has served four presidents over a career spanning 30 years.

“We’re in unprecedented territory,” said Ned Price, a former CIA analyst from 2006 to 2017 who served as a special assistant to Barack Obama. “The president of the United States for the first time has decided to revoke a security clearance on the basis of a critic exercising his first amendment rights to free speech.”

“This has been an area that in previous administrations were untouched by political forces,” he added. “There has been a clear dividing of the political and national security realms within our country.

“When you start to blur those lines, you run the risk of political actors, including the president of the United States, using the awesome powers of our national security community to do his bidding.”

Former intelligence officials typically retain their security clearances so they can continue to be consulted by subsequent administrations on matters of national security.

In its announcement, the White House did not point to any specific evidence that Brennan had divulged classified information – furthering the notion that the president was simply engaging in retaliation.

The former director of national intelligence James Clapper also told CNN he believed the move was “unprecedented”.

Clapper, who is among nine other national security figures whose security clearances were also announced to be under review by the White House on Wednesday, called the move against Brennan “an infringement of first amendment rights”.

“Infringement of our right to speak, and apparently the appropriateness of being critical of this president,” Clapper said.

“It is an enemies list to get at people that have been critical or who have taken actions that, you know, he didn’t like. That to me is a pretty chilling message,” he added later.

Brennan, Clapper and Michael Hayden, a former director of the National Security Agency who is also on the list, all said Trump’s move would not stop them, from speaking out against the administration.

Brennan, who served as the director of the CIA under Obama, has intensified his criticism of Trump in recent months, drawing backlash from the president and his supporters. Last month, Brennan described Trump’s summit with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Helsinki as “nothing short of treasonous” after Trump sided with the Kremlin over US intelligence officials when asked if Moscow had interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

White House revokes security clearance of ex-CIA chief and Trump critic John Brennan Read more

This week, Brennan sharply rebuked Trump for referring to Omarosa Manigault Newman, the president’s former aide, as “that dog”.

He tweeted: “It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity. Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation.”

Brennan has not only denounced Trump’s tone and temperament but also his policy decisions, such as the president’s decisions to withdraw from the Paris climate accord and Iran nuclear deal. He also expressed skepticism of Trump’s handling of negotiations with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.

“I think he is dishonest, he lacks integrity, he has very questionable ethics and morality, and he views the world through a prism of ‘how it’s going to help Donald Trump?’” Brennan said in an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered in April.

“I just think that he has not fulfilled the responsibilities of the president of the United States.”