How Trump Tried to Destroy a Patriot: The John Brennan Story

A Seasoned Spy at Work: John Brennan briefs President Obama in the Oval Office, his decades of intelligence expertise shaping critical national security decisions

  John Brennan was the kind of guy who did the job no matter how tough it got. He wasn’t in it for fame, didn’t care about politics—he just wanted to keep America safe. For decades, he worked in the shadows, serving under different presidents, making the hard calls in counterterrorism. He helped hunt down Osama bin Laden, built strategies to keep the country ahead of its enemies, and sat in the rooms where the most dangerous threats were dealt with. He was the kind of man you counted on when the stakes were life or death. But then Trump came along, and suddenly, none of it mattered.

     For most of his career, John Brennan wasn’t just respected—he was the man both sides trusted when things got messy. He spent 25 years in the CIA, diving deep into the most volatile regions on the planet, analyzing threats from the Near East and South Asia, running operations as a station chief in Saudi Arabia, and later heading up the National Counterterrorism Center. He stepped away from government for a bit, leading a security consulting firm, but it didn’t take long before he was back in the thick of it—this time as Obama’s top counterterrorism advisor.

     In 2009, when he was up for CIA Director, he shocked everyone by pulling his own name out of the running. He wouldn’t be part of an agency that had used torture under President Bush, not even if it meant walking away from the job he’d spent his life preparing for. That told people everything they needed to know about his character. Four years later, when he finally took the top job at the CIA, there was no question—he wasn’t just qualified, he was the kind of steady hand you wanted steering the ship in an unpredictable world. 

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      But Brennan’s deep commitment to America—his unshakable sense of duty—was not something born out of his years in intelligence. It was something woven into him from the very start.

     Over a decade ago, Brennan made a quiet but deeply personal trip to Kilteevan, County Roscommon, Ireland, the village his father once called home. He wasn’t alone—he brought his brother Tom and their 93-year-old father, Owen. It was a homecoming in the truest sense, a return to the roots that shaped the values Brennan carried with him throughout his career. The event organizers had invited him, but they never expected him to come. He was, after all, one of the busiest men in Washington. But when word finally came that he had accepted, the town was stunned.

     “We couldn’t believe it,” said Eileen Fahey, chairperson of the Kilteevan Community Development Group. “Everybody thought it wasn’t possible. Isn’t a father coming home with his two sons the essence of what the Gathering is about?”

     The Kilteevan community center, once the local Catholic church, was packed with hundreds of people. It was the very building where Owen Brennan had been baptized on April 9, 1920, long before he emigrated to the United States in 1948. There, in that small village, the story of the Brennan family began—a story of perseverance, sacrifice, and belief in something greater than oneself. Owen left Ireland to build a new life, married an American woman, and raised a son who would go on to dedicate himself to protecting the nation that gave his family a new beginning.

     Speaking in Kilteevan, Brennan reflected on the journey that had brought him there. He called himself and his family part of the “great Irish diaspora,” emphasizing the values his father had instilled in him—family, community, love of country, and love of God. These weren’t just words; they were the foundation of everything he believed in.

     John Brennan spent decades protecting America, but none of that mattered once he dared to challenge the Trump administration. It wasn’t about Brennan failing at his job—he didn’t. It was about him refusing to play along with an administration that valued loyalty over truth. And for that, Trump made him a target.

     Trump didn’t just criticize Brennan—he went after him with a vengeance. The most blatant move? Stripping his security clearance. It was pure retaliation, an unprecedented abuse of power meant to send a message: Speak out, and I’ll shut you down. Security clearances exist to protect national security, not to be used as a political weapon against those who know too much.

     But Trump wasn’t done. He dragged Brennan’s name through the mud, calling him a liar, a traitor, a disgrace. He tried to rewrite history, make people forget the decades Brennan spent serving his country. He even accused him of spying on his campaign—an outrageous claim with zero proof, but exactly the kind of conspiracy theory that fed Trump’s “deep state” narrative. It wasn’t about facts. It was about control. And Brennan, a man who’d faced down terrorists and dictators, suddenly found himself under attack by his own president.

     The irony? He had good reason to be worried about Trump long before the rest of the country caught on. In April 2016, a Baltic intelligence agency handed him something explosive—an audio recording of Russian officials talking about funneling money straight into Trump’s campaign. This wasn’t some rumor or political hit job. It was hard evidence. But Brennan’s hands were tied. The CIA isn’t allowed to operate on U.S. soil, so he did the only thing he could—he passed it on to a joint counterintelligence task force.

     This wasn’t about party lines. It wasn’t about trying to take down a candidate. It was about national security, plain and simple. But in Trump’s world, following the truth made you the enemy. And Brennan, a man who had spent decades hunting down America’s real adversaries, suddenly found himself in the crosshairs.

     John Brennan didn’t just lose favor with Trump’s crowd—he became their enemy. But this was never just about him. It was about something bigger. It was an assault on the entire intelligence community, a warning shot to anyone who dared to put truth above politics.

     For years, the CIA operated on one simple principle: expertise and experience mattered more than party loyalty. But Trump flipped that on its head. He made it clear—what mattered wasn’t decades of service, it wasn’t protecting the country, it wasn’t even results. What mattered was loyalty. To him.

     Brennan had helped take down bin Laden. He’d spent his career in the shadows, keeping America safe from threats most people never even knew existed. But none of that counted in Trump’s world. He erased Brennan’s legacy, rewrote him as a villain, and sent a message to anyone else thinking of standing up to him—fall in line, or I’ll destroy you.

     Brennan embodied what a public servant should be—someone who puts the country first, no matter the cost. But under Trump, that didn’t count. His legacy isn’t just about one man; it’s about truth, power, and the future of America. And if Trump’s treatment of Brennan proves anything, it’s that experience and integrity mean nothing in his world—only blind loyalty does.

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and an accomplished author. He writes the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster Short Story, blending his knowledge of real-life intelligence operations with gripping fictional storytelling. His work offers readers an insider’s glimpse into the world of espionage, inspired by the complexities and high-stakes realities of the intelligence community.