WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Friday (Feb 7) revoked his predecessor Joe Biden’s security clearance in a blizzard of new orders, while escalating his campaign to dismantle the US humanitarian agency charged with helping the world’s poorest and extending American influence around the globe.
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 the country’s premier cultural venues, the Kennedy Center.
“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 in all caps.
US presidents are traditionally given the right to receive intelligence briefings even after they step down.
Trump also stepped up his assault on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which distributes humanitarian aid globally.
“THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!” he wrote on his Truth Social app about USAID, without offering evidence.
USAID has received the most concentrated fire since Trump launched a crusade led by Musk – the world’s richest person – to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government.
On Friday, Musk – who along with Trump has spread blatantly false information about USAID’s finances – reposted photos of the agency’s signage being removed from its Washington headquarters.
The Trump administration has frozen foreign aid, ordered thousands of internationally-based staff to return to the United States, and begun slashing the USAID headcount of 10,000 employees to around only 300.
Labour unions are challenging the legality of the onslaught. A federal judge on Friday ordered a pause to the administration’s plan to put 2,200 USAID workers on paid leave by the weekend.
Democrats say it would be unconstitutional for Trump to shut down government agencies without the legislature’s green light.
