“We are going to go by ... both the tradition and the law, that if somebody is the Republican nominee for president, they need to get security briefings so that if they were to win, they are not starting from scratch,” Obama said at a press conference at the Pentagon.

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The president declined to detail the substance of those briefings, but he issued a stern warning to Trump to keep the information he receives under wraps.

“They have been told these are classified briefings,” he said. “If they want to be president, they have to start acting like president.”

Obama said that means the GOP nominee needs to be “able to receive these briefings and not spread them around.”

Asked if he’s worried about the possibility of Trump publicly leaking classified information, Obama replied, “well, I think I’ve said enough on that.”

Obama was peppered with questions about Trump at an end-of-summer press conference before he leaves Saturday for his family vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

All major-party presidential nominees are given classified intelligence briefings so they can be prepared to face national security threats on the first day they take office.

But some Democratic lawmakers have argued that Trump should be barred from receiving the briefings due to concerns he might leak the information.

Trump has countered that his Democratic opponent should not be included in the briefings, arguing that her use of a home-brew email server as secretary of State put sensitive national security information at risk.