The Atlantic

Pulling Security Clearances Is Just the Start

Another norm falls victim to Trump as he turns the power of government against his critics
Source: Gary Cameron / Reuters

It will not be surprising if, in the next few weeks, Sarah Huckabee Sanders says that the president never had the intention of pulling the security clearances of the former director of the CIA and the former director of national intelligence. With the deadpan mendacity that she has raised from a mere survival skill in this White House to an art form, she will insist that it is all a hoax planted by the Amazon-driven Washington Post. But even if (as is often the case) President Donald Trump backs down when confronted with serious resistance, those threats will have told us some things worth knowing.

The first, and least consequential, has to do with the psyche of aThe current incumbents of high offices want to tap the wisdom accumulated during the course of 30 years spent in increasingly difficult administrative positions (for career people), or during even a few years in crucial decision-making jobs (for political appointees).

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