Donald Trump now takes aim at Clapper

US President Donald Trump stayed the course of his conflict with professional spies and strategists of the US on Tuesday as debate continued on his decision last week to revoke the security clearance of former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan.

While a large segment of former officials of America’s security agencies hit back at the President for his move against Mr Brennan, Mr Trump got some unexpected support too.

Mr Trump took potshots at former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper who had supported Mr. Brennan last week before disapproving of his outbursts later.

“Even James Clapper has admonished John Brennan for having gone totally off the rails. Maybe Clapper is being nice to me so he doesn’t lose his security clearance for lying to Congress!”

Both Mr Clapper and Mr Brennan have been critical of Mr. Trump and particularly his Russia policy. Mr. Brennan had described Mr. Trump’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July as “treasonous”, while Mr. Clapper had called the US President an intelligence “asset” of the Russian President. The President is reviewing clearances of other critics also.

Mr Clapper said on Sunday that he thought Mr. Brennan’s rhetoric was becoming an “issue”. “John and his rhetoric have become an issue in and of itself,” Mr Clapper said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’. “John is subtle like a freight train and he’s gonna say what’s on his mind.”

Mr Clapper had apologised to Congress in 2013, admitting to “erroneous” testimony about US surveillance programmes. The House Intelligence Committee had accused him of providing “inconsistent testimony”. Mr Clapper was among the signatories to a statement by nearly 200 former officials of security agencies, and the Departments of State and Defense against Mr Trump’s decision. These officials have said the President’s action was against freedom of expression.

Mr Brennan has threatened to bring a lawsuit against Mr Trump. “I hope John Brennan, the worst CIA Director in our country’s history, brings a lawsuit,” the President said in response on Monday. “It will then be very easy to get all of his records, texts, emails and documents to show not only the poor job he did, but how he was involved with the Mueller Rigged Witch Hunt.”

In another tweet, Mr Trump wrote: “Everybody wants to keep their Security Clearance, it’s worth great prestige and big dollars, even board seats, and that is why certain people are coming forward to protect Brennan. It certainly isn’t because of the good job he did! He is a political ‘hack’.“

Mr. Brennan had accused the President of collusion with Russia in a New York Times article last week, riling Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a Republican critic of Mr Trump and Russia usually. “Director Brennan’s recent statements purport to know as fact that the Trump campaign colluded with a foreign power. If his statement is based on intelligence he has seen since leaving office, it constitutes an intelligence breach. If he has some other personal knowledge of or evidence of collusion, it should be disclosed to the special counsel, not The New York Times,” Mr Burr said.

(V K George is a writer and leading columnist with many newspapers)