I write as a person who has previously had a top-secret security clearance. There is an aspect of the brouhaha over presidential son-in-law and White House aide Jared Kushner’s security clearance that I find ironic. In my view, there is no way that Donald Trump would be able to obtain a top-secret security clearance if he were a White House adviser rather than the president.
We know that his businesses have had multiple bankruptcies. He has been caught in lie after lie. And we know that he has been accused of sexual harassment and assault multiple times and apparently has had multiple extramarital affairs. He also has had extensive business dealings with Russians and other international bad actors. These are all giant red flags for someone seeking security clearance. In fact, they are almost certainly disqualifications for clearance.
We require that anyone running for president must be born in this country. Why do we not put in another requirement that you must be able to pass a top-secret security clearance? Isn’t this just common sense? We naively gave President Trump, who was elected with Russian help, access to our state secrets on day one. We could call this new law “The Trump Amendment.”
Kevin Carley
Portland
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