By: Ernest Gurulé
The last week has been an amazing, almost dizzying seven-day period in which American politics have unfolded into surreality. Outside of a cinematic political thriller, the nation has had front row seats to a drama involving a former American president accused of taking top secret documents perhaps up to and including the highest level of nuclear plans and information.
The FBI, acting on a warrant approved by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, executed a search of the Florida estate of former president Donald Trump. According to the warrant, agents seized 11 sets of classified documents including materials marked “top secret/sensitive compartmented information” —(SCI) the highest level of secrecy in government—along with other materials potentially critical to U.S. security.
Set aside the headlines of a former U.S. president absconding with the nation’s most sensitive materials and storing them in a venue in which visitors, including foreigners, move freely about, it has also exposed a Grand Canyon like rift between Trump supporters and critics with one side accusing the FBI of planting damaging information aimed at hurting the former president and the other demanding answers as to why the nation’s secrets were carelessly lying around at a Florida resort a thousand miles away from Washington D.C. in the first place.
Trump supporters, including his party’s elected leadership, have taken sharp aim at the attorney general and the FBI for even executing the warrant, calling it a ‘witch hunt’ and offering the most creative explanations for the materials even being at Mar-a-Lago. One of Trump’s attorneys said it was just stuff the ex-president took with him to work at home.
Few Republicans have been more defensive of nor more supportive of the twice-impeached ex-president than Colorado Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert. “Everyone saying ‘a judge signed off on the FBI’s search warrant’ clearly won’t admit that the entire Deep State hates President Trump and would sign off on ANYTHING to hurt him.” ‘Deep State’ is a Republican Trump-era descriptive for those who would stand in the way of Trump plans and policies.
Boebert also accused the FBI of using ‘Gestapo’ tactics in carrying out the seizure. The Gestapo, of course, was Hitler’s military arm that arrested and ordered the detention of hundreds of thousands of Jews, a majority of whom later died in Nazi death camps.
Trump, however, does have a documented history during his time in the White House of carelessly mishandling or even clumsily sharing highly sensitive materials. Early in his presidency, he allegedly revealed highly classified materials to Russian foreign minister Lavrov along with Russian ambassador Kislyak during an Oval Office visit in which American media were cleared out of the room leaving only a Russian photographer to record the visit.
In another inexplicable security breach, he also tweeted a photograph to Iran’s government of a classified airstrike. “We had a photo and I released it, which I have the absolute right to do and we’ll see what happens…they had a big mishap,” he told reporters of a failed Iranian missile launch. The photo, of course, exposed secret U.S. drone surveillance capabilities.
Other curious incidents of carelessness include his handling of high level secrets, one of which occurred in 2017 when Trump hosted Japanese Prime Minister Abe at Mar-a-Lago. During Abe’s visit, North Korea staged a missile test. A bit later, in a wedding Trump dropped in on, guests could clearly hear Trump discussing U.S. plans for dealing with the action.
While Trump has a track record of doing things his way when it comes to everything from dubious personal behavior to the handling of sensitive government documents, it was last February when news first broke about the transfer of 15 boxes of classified materials to Mar-a-Lago. In addition to documents, the government alleged that Trump had also taken various items given the president during various foreign trips. (When an official gift is given the president, it belongs to the office and not the individual, says the National Archives.) Most of those boxes were returned to Washington, but it was later learned—and the reason for the recent Mar-a-Lago search—that there was another trove of boxes and classified material still in Florida.
A major point of contention now is whether Trump or any president has the authority to arbitrarily ‘declassify’ sensitive documents. Former Trump national security staffer, Kash Patel, recently said when you’re president, you have that power. “If he says something is declassified, that’s it. It is declassified,” said Patel, much like priestly absolution. Others far more experienced in matters of policy and security disagree and call Trump’s track record—but especially this latest episode—dangerous or foolish.
Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff who led Trump’s second impeachment trial, says there is a written and formal process for declassifying materials. Trump, he said, ignored protocol. “We should determine, you know, whether there was any effort during the presidency to go through the process of declassification…I’ve seen no evidence of that.”
It may be a while—perhaps months—before it is determined just what laws and directives Trump may or may not have violated by removing government secrets out of Washington. But what is certain is this latest episode of his behavior has only widened the gap at all levels between his most ardent supporters and his critics, including a growing number of Republicans.
His acolytes, including one-time presidential advisor and recently convicted Steve Bannon, have called for MAGA destruction of the ‘Gestapo FBI.’ Also, in just the last week, two Trump loyalists have acted out violently against the government. In one case, a one-time Proud Boy and January 6th insurrectionist tried to enter a Cincinnati FBI field office armed with both an AR-15 and nail gun. He later died in a shootout with authorities. Also, over the weekend, a Trump supporter crashed his car into a cement barrier near the U.S. Supreme Court before turning his weapon on himself.
To date, nearly every Republican in Congress has remained silent with any criticism over Trump’s open disregard for policy in removing government property up to and including information potentially damaging to national security. This despite FBI receipts, including clearly marked and for-eyes-only documents.
