Trump’s Relationship With National Security Community ‘Dangerously Close To Being Broken,’ Michael Hayden Says

President Donald Trump’s relationship with the national security community is “dangerously close to being broken,” former CIA Director Michael Hayden said Sunday, The Hill reports.

According to Hayden, Donald Trump continues to complicate his relationship with the national security community, which now has no choice but to be political. In fact, with the Trump administration doing what it does, it is becoming increasingly hard for the national security community to remain apolitical, Hayden claims.

“If we’re back in our old agencies, we’re trying to say to our workforce: ‘We have nothing to do with what John Brennan says on TV and we have nothing to do with what the president has done in response. We’ve got our basic lane, we’ve got to be blocking and tackling.’ But that has to be harder and harder each day as the administration takes these kinds of actions.”

The former CIA director is referring to recent happenings involving John Brennan’s security clearance, which was revoked by the Trump administration. As CNN reported last Wednesday, the White House decided to revoke the security clearance of John Brennan, citing “conduct characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary.”

Ever since then, as the Inquisitr reported, Brennan’s name has been occupying the headlines of the same media outlets that used to criticize his notorious drone program, and stances on torture. Since Trump is reportedly planning on revoking the security clearances of individuals like James Clapper, Susan Rice, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and even Michael Hayden, his relationship with the national security community is becoming more strained by the day.

When asked if he would be proud to have his security clearance revoked by the Trump administration, Michael Hayden replied that he would, according to The Hill, saying that if Trump’s not revoking his clearance “gave the impression that I somehow moved my commentary to a direction more acceptable to the White House, I would find that very disappointing and frankly unacceptable.”

Hayden’s stances appear to be commonplace in the U.S. intelligence and national security communities. As Axios reported on August 18, only 48 hours after Trump revoked John Brennan’s security clearance, over 70 former intelligence officials came forward denouncing the decision, via joint statement.

According to The Guardian, Trump’s decision to revoke Brennan’s security clearance may have gotten the president into a full-blown war with American intelligence agencies. Intelligence officials stand united against the president, and the Brennan saga was just the tipping point, according to the outlet.

Trump has continually attacked the U.S. intelligence community as a whole, over their treatment of Hillary Clinton, the so-called Steele dossier, and, in particular, the Russia investigation, The Guardian concluded.