Trump Denies New Report About Obama

A New Yorker article about former CIA chief John Brennan's animosity toward President Trump makes a jarring allegation that has caught the attention of Trump himself. Reporter Adam Entous writes that Trump last year considered taking the unprecedented step of revoking former President Obama's security clearance as friction between the current and past administrations escalated. Trump, however, says he never even considered such a move. In the story, Entous writes that "some of the new President’s advisers"—nobody is named—suggested that Obama be denied the access to intel briefings that all former presidents have. Others in Trump's circle disagreed—especially then-national security adviser HR McMaster—and Trump sided with McMaster's camp, according to the article.

Not so, says the president. "Fake News, of which there is soooo much (this time the very tired New Yorker) falsely reported that I was going to take the extraordinary step of denying Intelligence Briefings to President Obama," he tweeted Tuesday morning. "Never discussed or thought of!" Trump also took note of former national intelligence director James Clapper's statement over the weekend that Brennan's anti-Trump "rhetoric" has "become an issue in and of itself." In another Tuesday tweet, Trump wrote: "Even James Clapper has admonished John Brennan for having gone totally off the rails. Maybe Clapper is being nice to me so he doesn’t lose his Security Clearance for lying to Congress!" (Trump says he hopes Brennan sues him.)