Ladies and gentlemen, it is now officially time to worry.
The Huffington Post is reporting that as early as this coming Friday, Donald Trump will be a part of highly classified national security briefings.
That is correct. Donald J. Trump, close personal friend of Vladimir Putin and general clown about town, will be privy to the most secret information about foreign and domestic security issues.
Since 1952, it has become government policy to share top secret information with the nominees of both parties, in order to insure a smooth transition of power. This makes sense, for the most part.
In the past, however, there has never been a candidate like Trump.
The first worry of the intelligence community is his close connection to the Russian leader.
Donald Trump and Putin have lavished praise on each other, causing many in the media to refer to the “bromance” between the two men.
FBI opens investigation into DNC hack as Clinton campaign blames Trump-Putin "bromance" https://t.co/2p3vqqNCs7 pic.twitter.com/YVAhGLXFXm
— Gawker (@Gawker) July 25, 2016
The mutual admiration of the two egotistical leaders has many in the intelligence community worried. One former intelligence official said:
“Never have we had a candidate so tied to a foreign power, especially one that is so hostile to the U.S. in many ways, and one that is actively messing with our election. Many [in the intelligence community] don’t care about U.S. politics and pride themselves on being nonpartisan, but the ties to Russia are deeply disturbing.”
Intelligence officials feel that they have no choice but to share the information in the security briefings with Trump and Pence (R-In), just as they will share them with former Secretary of State Clinton, Democrat and Kaine (D-Va). That is not to day that any of them is comfortable with the idea, though.
I’d like to add my own concerns to those expressed in the article. Donald Trump has proven that he speaks before he thinks. He says whatever pops into his head at any given moment. He has shared the cell phone numbers of public officials and journalists (Sen. Lindsey Graham and Telemundo anchor Jorge Ramos).
He has also demonstrated what is quite possibly a serious language disorder as well as possible ADHD.
The thought of him sharing state secrets during one of his disjointed, rambling speeches is enough to scare the living daylights out of me.
It’s definitely time to worry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssHPP5gXfro
Featured image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr. Available through Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Generic 2.0 license.
