Our intelligence services are consumed with battling a new “Axis of Evil.” The updated phrase, first coined in 2002, now refers to Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. This powerful authoritarian alliance is determined to meddle in elections, launch cyberattacks, destabilize and wage wars against America and its allied democracies around the world.
In this context, consider the likelihood that, starting next Jan. 20, sensitive secrets will be viewed by the most notorious national security risk living outside a federal penitentiary.
It sounds like a Hollywood script, but our spy services must contend with this real-life drama if Donald Trump is elected president once again.
President Biden’s campaign and those who served in Trump’s administration must convey to voters that Trump himself represents a national security risk with severe domestic and global ramifications. Even before November’s election, in mid-July 2024, after Trump is officially nominated at the Republican National Convention, he will be entitled to receive intelligence briefings that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) hopes will be “dumbed down.” Schiff is reportedly “concerned about whether Trump could share the information.”
Intelligence agencies were always concerned and took necessary precautions during Trump’s presidency. “Officials were even more cautious about what information they provided Mr. Trump because some saw the president himself as a security risk," the New York Times reported in 2022, quoting CIA counterintelligence official Douglas London.
That sentiment harkens back to January 2017, when an........