SECURITY CLEARANCESecurity Clearances Don’t Determine Whom a President Can Trust – They Reveal Risks the President May Not Know
The slow clearance process is itself a security problem. A new administration cannot reasonably leave important White House positions vacant for six or seven months while investigations are completed. Interim access recognizes that reality. But there is a difference between accepting a known security risk and choosing not to determine what that risk might be.
One of President Donald Trump’s closest aides, Natalie Harp, worked in the White House for more than a year without completing the normal security clearance process, according to a recent MS Now report.
Harp may have been among the personnel granted interim Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information access at the beginning of Trump’s second term. Trump authorized such clearances in January 2025 for up to six months, allowing officials to begin work while the normal background investigations proceeded.
According to the MS Now report, however, Harp declined multiple times over more than a year to begin that process, submitting the required forms in recent months after concerns were raised inside the White House and Trump intervened. She has since been granted clearance.
The circumstances surrounding Harp are unusual, but the tension they expose is not. New presidential administrations need people in place immediately, but the government’s security-vetting system can take months to complete. Interim clearances are one way of reconciling those competing demands.
The difficulty comes when temporary access and the investigation that is supposed to follow it cease to move together. Understanding why that matters requires first looking at what the clearance process actually involves.
The Clearance Process
I’m an international affairs professor, and I’ve held executive roles in the CIA, National Counterterrorism Center and National Security Agency. Before I could be hired to begin my nearly 30 years in the U.S. intelligence community, I completed a lengthy questionnaire required for a high-level clearance and underwent an extensive background investigation. CIA applicants also face additional scrutiny, including a polygraph. My process took about six months.
The CIA’s clearance process is uniquely intimidating, intrusive and exhausting – something I warn students who are interested in applying to the agency to expect.
Not every federal agency subjects applicants to the same degree or type of scrutiny, and requirements vary according to the position and level of access. But security vetting for national security positions is rarely simple or quick. Investigators may examine a person’s employment history, finances, foreign contacts, travel, criminal conduct, drug use and other personal circumstances. They may interview employers, neighbors, friends and family members, and require additional screening.
Despite repeated government efforts to shorten the clearance process, it can take considerably longer today than what I experienced. The Government Accountability Office reported in February 2026 that the fastest 90% of initial Top Secret clearances took an average of 206 days as of early 2025. The government’s goal was 114 days.
