President Donald Trump on Friday revoked his predecessor Joe Biden’s security clearance in a blizzard of new orders and escalated his campaign to dismantle the US humanitarian agency charged with helping the world’s poorest and extending American influence around the globe.
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In a new series of rapid-fire power plays, the 78-year-old billionaire also froze aid to South Africa, where his top donor Elon Musk was born, and named himself head of one of Washington’s premier cultural venues, the Kennedy Centre.
“There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information,” Trump said on his Truth Social network, adding that he was “immediately” revoking the Democrat’s security clearances and ending his daily intelligence briefings.
“Joe, you’re fired,” he added.
Trump said Biden set the precedent four years earlier. Biden, in 2021, said he would rescind Trump’s access to security briefings, citing Trump’s “erratic behaviour”.
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US presidents are traditionally given the right to receive intelligence briefings even after they step down.