More than 400 former U.S. intelligence and national security officials are raising concerns that President Donald Trump is weakening institutional checks on executive power and using national security tools against perceived opponents, according to the Financial Times.
The officials are members of The Steady State, a network formed in 2016 over concerns about rising authoritarianism in the United States. Its membership has grown during Trump's second term, with founder Steven Cash telling the FT that half of its members remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation.
"The guardrails were all taken down," national security lawyer Mark Zaid told the outlet. "I don't think we're even close to the worst of where we're going to go." Paul Kolbe, a former CIA station chief who served in the former Soviet Union and Balkans, added that authoritarian governments "have relatively common playbooks in terms of how they capture and wield power," adding that developments in the U.S. "rhyme" with those patterns.
Former officials pointed to Trump's use of security clearances and declassified intelligence among their concerns. Trump revoked the clearances of 50 former intelligence officials on his first day back in office and later targeted former Biden administration officials and other critics. Zaid said the use of clearances against perceived opponents had not occurred on this scale since the Red Scare of the 1950s.
The officials also criticized Trump's use of declassified intelligence to support claims that China interfered in the 2020 election. A July review by The Associated Press found that documents released by the administration did not substantiate claims that China or another foreign power manipulated the vote. A 2021 National Intelligence Council assessment had concluded that Beijing did not deploy election interference efforts.
Former CIA analyst Julia Curlee accused Trump of "using the CIA" to reinforce his political message "in defiance of what the institution itself actually believes."
The White House rejected the criticism, telling The Financial Times that Trump was carrying out his electoral mandate and "restoring democracy by putting power back into the hands of the American people." The CIA also defended the declassification process and dismissed criticism from former officials whose clearances had been revoked.
