Donald Trump will receive intelligence briefing once he's the nominee
Donald Trump will likely receive U.S. intelligence briefings once he becomes the Republican nominee, the White House said Thursday.
"What Director [of Intelligence James] Clapper has indicated is that the intelligence community typically begins providing those briefings after the party nomination conventions have occurred. And I would expect that that would take place in this instance this year, as well," spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.
The decision, Earnest said, about how and whether and when and what to brief to the presidential nominees is not made by the president, but by intelligence professionals.
"They are committed to fulfilling the spirit of this bipartisan, or even nonpartisan, cooperation when it comes to sensitive national security issues," Earnest said.
Asked if he had no comment on whether President Obama would be confident or comfortable with Trump receiving intelligence briefings, Earnest reiterated that the intelligence community makes that assessment and that Obama has "full confidence" in them.
This comes after Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee this week after his two remaining rivals, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, dropped out of the race. His nomination won't be official until he reaches the required 1,237 delegate threshold at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this July.
In 2012, then-GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney began receiving intelligence briefings in mid-September, a few weeks after his party's convention that summer.