PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump said Friday that he’s revoking former President Biden’s access to government secrets and ending the daily intelligence briefings he’s receiving, in payback for Biden doing the same to him four years ago over Trump’s role in the 2021 insurrection.
Trump announced his decision in a post on his social media platform shortly after he arrived at his Mar-a-Lago home and private club in Palm Beach for the weekend.
“There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings,” Trump wrote. “He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents.”
The move is the latest in a tour of retribution that Trump promised during his campaign last year. He has previously revoked security clearances from more than four dozen former intelligence officials who signed a 2020 letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop saga, involving unproven allegations against the former president’s son, bore the hallmarks of a “Russian information operation.” Trump has also revoked security details assigned to protect former government officials who have criticized him, including his own former secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo, who faces threats from Iran, and former infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Biden didn’t immediately comment on the move.
Biden ended Trump’s intelligence briefings after Trump helped spur efforts to remain in power despite his loss in the 2020 presidential election, including his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, for which he was impeached on a charge of inciting an insurrection. At the time, Biden said Trump’s “erratic” behavior should prevent him from getting the intel briefings.
Asked in an interview with CBS News what he feared if Trump continued to receive the briefings, Biden said he did not want to “speculate out loud” but made clear he did not want Trump to continue having access to such information.
“I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings,” Biden said. “What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”
In 2022, federal agents searched Trump’s Florida home and seized boxes of classified records. He was indicted on dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding classified records — including nuclear secrets — and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back. Trump pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. A Trump-appointed judge dismissed the charges, ruling that the special counsel who brought them was illegally appointed. The Justice Department gave up appeals after Trump was elected in November, citing long-standing policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
In a related matter, Trump dismissed Colleen Shogan as the archivist of the United States, White House aide Sergio Gor posted on X Friday night.
Trump had said in early January that he would replace the head of the National Archives and Records Administration. The government agency drew his anger after it informed the Justice Department about Trump’s mishandling of classified documents. Shogan, the first woman in the post, wasn’t the archivist at the time the issue emerged.
In his post on Biden, Trump cited the special counsel report last year into Biden’s handling of classified documents, saying, “The Hur Report revealed that Biden suffers from ‘poor memory’ and, even in his ‘prime,’ could not be trusted with sensitive information.”
He ended his post by saying, “I will always protect our National Security — JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Special counsel Robert Hur investigated Biden’s handling of classified information and found that criminal charges were not warranted, but delivered a critical assessment of his handling of sensitive government records. The report described Biden’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.” It said Biden could not recall defining milestones in his own life such as when his son Beau died or when he served as vice president. Biden denied the characterization, and he and others denounced Hur’s report.
Trump has the right to end the briefings for Biden because it is a sitting president’s decision on whether a past president should continue to have access to classified information.
Steven Cheung, the president’s communications director, shared Trump’s post on the X social media platform and said, “Hit the road Jack and don’t you come back no more!”
Superville writes for the Associated Press.