Donald Trump Declines Security Briefings for This Surprising Reason

Donald Trump says he has more to lose than gain from receiving security briefings during his campaign this time around.

The Republican nominee told the Daily Mail he’s refusing to sit down with security agencies this election season because he fears Joe Biden’s team will accuse him of leaking confidential information, but also because he claims to just already be in the know.

It’s a break from the norm for a presidential hopeful. Non-incumbent nominees of major parties often begin receiving security briefings in late August and receive them occasionally until Election Day.

The briefings are often broad in scope and include classified information, but they’re far less detailed than the briefings provided to the president.

“I don’t need that briefing,” Trump said Wednesday. “They come in. They give you a briefing, and then two days later, they leak it. And then they say, ‘You leaked it.’ The only way to solve that problem is not to take it—I don’t want it.”

The former president also confidently commented, “I’ll have plenty of them when I get in.,” referring to briefings. He also justified the rejection by claiming he already knows “what’s happening” in the world.

The sit downs are done, in part, so candidates don’t say something on the campaign trail that undermines U.S. national security, explained CIA Director Michael Morell in a Q&A. They’re also done to familiarize a potential future commander-in-chief with any pressing matters abroad that may not be publicly known.

“The objective is to protect national security during the campaign by giving the candidates a deep sense of the national security landscape,” Morell said.

Trump is different than any presidential nominee in the 21st century, however. He’s already been president for four years and remained at the helm of the Republican party in the interim, giving him perspective on national security other candidates have not had access to at this point in the race.

Also unlike most candidates before him, Trump allegedly has a shaky history with keeping classified information secure. He was indicted in 2022 on accusations he swiped classified documents from the White House and kept them stored inside his South Florida estate at Mar-a-Lago.

That case has since been tossed over the appointment of special prosecutor Jack Smith to the case, but allegations against Trump were never disproven in court.

It’s likely Trump hasn’t received a national security briefing since he left office in early 2021. Former presidents are typically offered the courtesy of receiving briefings once they leave office, but Biden broke that precedent to deny Trump information because of what he called “erratic behavior” from his political rival.