The Japan Times - Trump revokes Biden's security clearance, escalates foreign aid crackdown

In a new series of rapid-fire power plays, the 78-year-old billionaire also froze aid to South Africa, where his top donor Elon Musk was born, and named himself head of one of the country's premier cultural venues, the Kennedy Center.

"There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information," Trump said on his Truth Social network, adding that he was "immediately" revoking the Democrat's security clearances and ending his daily intelligence briefings.

US presidents are traditionally given the right to receive intelligence briefings even after they step down.

Trump also stepped up his assault on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which distributes humanitarian aid globally.

"THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!" he wrote on his Truth Social app about USAID, without offering evidence.

USAID has received the most concentrated fire since Trump launched a crusade led by Musk -- the world's richest person -- to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government.

On Friday, Musk -- who along with Trump has spread blatantly false information about USAID's finances -- reposted photos of the agency's signage being removed from its Washington headquarters.

The Trump administration has frozen foreign aid, ordered thousands of internationally-based staff to return to the United States, and begun slashing the USAID headcount of 10,000 employees to around only 300.

Labor unions are challenging the legality of the onslaught. A federal judge on Friday ordered a pause to the administration's plan to put 2,200 USAID workers on paid leave by the weekend.

Democrats say it would be unconstitutional for Trump to shut down government agencies without the legislature's green light.

- Soft power -

The United States' current budget allocates about $70 billion for international assistance, a tiny fraction of overall spending.

But it gets a big bang for its buck. USAID alone runs health and emergency programs in around 120 countries, including in the world's poorest regions, boosting Washington's battle for influence against rivals such as China.

"We are witnessing one of the worst and most costly foreign policy blunders in US history," Samantha Power, the USAID chief under former president Joe Biden, wrote in a scathing New York Times opinion piece.

Hard-right Republicans and libertarians have long questioned the need for USAID and criticized what they say is wasteful spending abroad.

Also Friday, Trump named himself as chairman of the Kennedy Center, suggesting that the stately white marble entertainment complex overlooking the Potomac River did not reflect his own values.

"Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth -- THIS WILL STOP," he wrote on Truth Social, without explaining what show he was referring to.

Trump has repeatedly attacked gender-nonconforming people.

He also followed up Friday on a promise to freeze US aid to South Africa, citing a law in the country that he alleges allows farmland to be seized from white farmers, despite Johannesburg's denials.

Musk has frequently criticized the South African government.

- Racist social posts -

Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have rampaged through agencies that most Americans have for decades taken for granted.

While Democrats have struggled to find footing to halt the budget-slashing moves, court challenges are slowly taking shape.

An attempt by Trump to overturn the constitutional guarantee to birthright citizenship has been blocked by a judge, and on Thursday another judge paused an attempt to offer mass buyouts to federal workers, pending arguments on Monday.

Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, ran into controversy last week with reports he and his team were accessing sensitive Treasury Department data and systems.

An internal assessment from the Treasury called the DOGE team's access to federal payment systems "the single biggest insider threat the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced," US media reported.

Adding to the drama, one member of the DOGE team resigned after it emerged that he had advocated racism and eugenics on social media.

On Friday, following backing for the sacked 25-year-old from Trump, Musk said he would reinstate the staffer.

Vice President JD Vance weighed in Friday saying he did not think "stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life," while criticizing the reporter who unearthed the posts for trying to "destroy people."

M.Yamazaki--JT