Heartless Trump Bans Obama’s Intel Chief from Ceremony Honoring Late Wife

In a jaw-dropping move that critics are calling both cruel and petty, President Donald Trump personally blocked former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper from attending a CIA graduation ceremony—for a dog.

Not just any dog, either. “Susan,” a golden retriever trained in explosives detection, was named after Clapper’s late wife, who passed away in 2023 after decades of quietly supporting her husband’s public service career. The ceremony would have marked Susan the dog’s formal graduation into active CIA service. But just a day before the event this May, Clapper was notified he was no longer welcome—thanks to a Trump-signed executive order.

“It was an act of petty vengeance, plain and simple,” said a former intelligence official familiar with the matter. “There was absolutely no national security justification for it. It was just Trump being Trump—vindictive, even when it comes to a dog.”

A Ceremony Turned Political Score-Settling

Clapper, now 84, had raised Susan from puppyhood as part of a CIA program that pairs public sponsors with future working dogs. Naming the pup “Susan” was a deeply personal tribute to his late wife, who had volunteered at a Virginia animal shelter and never left his side through years of military and intelligence work. The dog had performed exceptionally well in her training, earning a coveted post as a bomb-sniffing specialist with the CIA.

According to The Atlantic, Clapper had been enthusiastically invited to the dog’s graduation—until Trump got wind of it.

The reason? Revenge. Trump has long viewed Clapper as one of the architects of what he calls the “Russia hoax,” a reference to U.S. intelligence agencies’ 2017 conclusion that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump win.

Executive Power, Weaponized for Grudges

Sources say Trump used an executive order to bar Clapper from the CIA ceremony grounds altogether. “It was a slap in the face,” one official told us. “This wasn’t about state secrets. This was about a man trying to honor his late wife and the dog she inspired.”

The event itself wasn’t classified. Photos from the day showed other families posing proudly with their dogs, smiles and wagging tails captured for social media. Yet Clapper was blacklisted.

This wasn’t the first time Trump has gone after him. Upon retaking the White House in 2025, Trump again stripped security clearances from Clapper and other former officials who had signed a 2020 letter suggesting the Hunter Biden laptop story bore hallmarks of Russian interference.

“He’s turned the presidency into a tool for personal vendettas,” said a former national security advisor under the Obama administration. “Even George Orwell couldn’t have written this nonsense.”

Trump’s History of Hostility—To Clapper and to Dogs

The former president’s hostility toward Clapper is well documented. He once accused the longtime intelligence officer of having “choked like a dog” during a Senate hearing. Ironically, Trump has a documented aversion to dogs in general. He remains the only modern president never to have had one in the White House.

“I don’t feel it,” Trump said in a 2019 rally. “It feels a little phony to me.”

In contrast, Clapper’s relationship with Susan the dog wasn’t just symbolic. It was healing. Friends say the retired general poured himself into the training process as a way to stay connected to his late wife’s memory. To be denied a seat at the graduation was “devastating,” according to one family member.

“This wasn’t politics. This was a man trying to honor his wife,” they said. “And Trump turned it into another ego-driven stunt.”

The Bottom Line

In a presidency already marked by its vendettas and culture wars, this latest act underscores how personal Trump is willing to get. Banning an 84-year-old widower from a dog’s graduation might seem absurd—if it weren’t so emblematic of a leader who governs with a grudge.

As one CIA employee put it: “You expect the president to go to war with America’s enemies. Not her dogs.”