WASHINGTON – Former CIA Director John Brennan doubled down on his harshest criticism of President Trump on the heels of his security clearances being pulled by the administration.

“Well, I called his behavior treasonous, which is to betray one’s trust, and to aid and abet the enemy,” Brennan said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And I stand very much by that claim.”

NBC’s Chuck Todd asked the ex-CIA head if he perhaps had gone too far with his remarks against the president.

“Well, I think these are abnormal times and I think a lot of people have spoken out against what Mr. Trump has done,” Brennan replied.

Brennan told Todd he’s contemplating taking legal action in an effort to prevent Trump from pulling the security clearances of his critics.

“As I’m being pulled through the mud now, if that’s the price we’re going to pay to prevent Donald Trump from doing this against other people, to me it’s a small price to pay,” Brennan said. “If it means going to court, I’ll do that.”

Last Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced from the podium that the administration had decided to yank Brennan’s security clearances after he made a “series of unfounded and outrageous allegations – wild outbursts on the internet and television – about this administration.”

Brennan’s toughest words came on the heels of the Helsinki summit when Trump did not condemn Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election as he stood alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The press conference, Brennan said, was “nothing short of treasonous.”

Additionally, in a Thursday op-ed written for the New York Times, Brennan said Trump’s Russian collusion denials were “hogwash.”

Other former national security officials admitted that Brennan’s mouth sometimes got him into trouble.

“I think John is sort of like a freight train, he’s going to say what’s on his mind,” former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday morning.

President Obama’s former National Security Adviser Lisa Monaco agreed.

“Look, I think John has said he sometimes gets his Irish up,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

But Clapper pointed out that Brennan was showing “genuine concern about the jeopardy and the threats to our institutions and values.”

Tapper asked ex-CIA Director Michael Hayden about an op-ed written by Navy Admiral William McRaven, which was headlined “Revoke my security clearance, too, Mr. President,” wondering if he felt the same way.

Hayden said he’d be happy to be included in that group.

“And, frankly, if his not revoking my clearance gave the impression that I’d somehow moved my commentary in a direction more acceptable to the White House I would find that very disappointing and, frankly, unacceptable,” Hayden told Tapper.

“Our complaint is not just about this,” he said of the clearances. “It’s about the whole tone, tenor and behavior of this administration.”

Todd asked Brennan if he thought Trump’s current crop of national security advisers should resign over the president’s actions.

Brennan said he’d like to see CIA chief Gina Haspel stay in her position.

He suggested that Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats express a “deep, deep objection privately to Mr. Trump” and then decide if he could stay on.

Brennan was highly complimentary of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

“I’m sure he’s trying to keep Mr. Trump from doing awful, terrible things,” he said.

“But at some point these senior officials have to ask themselves, are they enabling this continued abusive and reckless behavior or not? And if they feel if they are enabling it and they are not having that type of governing influence on it, I think they have to show their displeasure and unhappiness and leave,” Brennan said.

The ex-CIA director also told Todd that nobody in the Trump administration has talked to him before or after Wednesday’s announcement.

“I was not notified before this happened by anybody in the government, I have not heard from anybody since then,” Brennan said. “To me that’s not surprising how this White House, how this administration, works.”

National Security Adviser John Bolton said Sunday that stripping Brennan of his security clearance was the president’s decision, but the idea came from another person.

“It’s something that I think was originally suggested by Senator Rand Paul, maybe others. I was aware of it along with most of the president’s other national security advisers a few weeks ago,” Bolton said on ABC’s “This Week.” “He obviously made his decision and we go from there.”

Bolton indicated that he agreed with the decision.

“It was my view that he and others in the Obama administration were politicizing intelligence,” Bolton told ABC’s Martha Raddatz. “I think that is a very dangerous thing to do.”The press conference, Brennan said, was “nothing short of treasonous.”