Pentagon removes name of Trump critic and Obama’s spy chief from auditorium

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The Trump administration Department of Defense has reportedly removed a prominent Obama administration official and Trump critic’s name from an auditorium at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington.

The Clapper Leadership Hall, named for former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, is now the Thomas Knowlton Leadership Hall, named for a Revolutionary War officer considered the father of American military intelligence.

“The Thomas Knowlton Leadership Hall at Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) headquarters honors a true American warrior whose legacy is inseparable from the birth of our nation’s intelligence profession,” Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez told The Hill.

President Trump has long reviled Clapper for his role in investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election, which intelligence officials concluded showed a preference to boost Trump’s candidacy.

“James Clapper disgraced himself and his career as an intelligence official. His name will no longer be honored at the Defense Intelligence Agency auditorium,” an unnamed senior defense official told The Daily Caller, which first reported the name change.

The Trump administration has reportedly removed the name of James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence under President Barack Obama, from a hall at the Defense Intelligence Agency (AFP/Getty)

“As Director of National Intelligence, he oversaw the politicization of the intelligence community, turning what should have been an apolitical institution into a tool used against his political opponents,” the official added. “That record makes him unfit to be recognized in a building dedicated to the professionals who actually protect this country.”

The Independent has contacted the Pentagon and DIA for comment. Clapper was unable to be immediately reached for comment.

Republicans accuse Clapper of mishandling the Russia investigation during the 2016 election and leaking an unverified dossier about alleged Russian dirt on Trump to the media in early 2017. The president, meanwhile, has accused Clapper of carrying out the “crime of the century” by fueling the damaging “Russia hoax.”

Clapper, writing in a 2025 op-ed in The New York Times, called allegations he politicized the intelligence “patently false,” arguing subsequent reviews of the investigation by the Senate, a Trump-appointed special counsel and the CIA have all confirmed this.

Clapper has denied allegations from Republicans he politicized the investigation into Russia’s election meddling in 2016 (AFP/Getty)

Clapper has also denied leaking the so-called Steele dossier to the media in January of 2017, as Trump was taking office, telling the Washington Post he did not discuss it with CNN’s Jake Tapper until May, after the claims of the dossier were already public information thanks to news reporting.

The president has targeted Clapper before, revoking his security clearance last year.

This reportedly had the effect of keeping Clapper from attending a graduation ceremony for a CIA K9 officer whose training he sponsored in honor of his late wife, who was an animal lover.

Clapper was also reportedly among the high-profile critics of Trump to be subpoenaed last year in Florida in a federal investigation in which the Trump administration is probing an alleged “grand conspiracy” to sink the Republican’s political campaigns.

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