Donald Trump just made one of the broadest claims of presidential power yet, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity he had the ability to declassify government documents with his mind.
Or, as one U.S. senator summed it up, Trump appears to think it can be done “telepathically.”
The claim comes after the FBI discovered highly sensitive government documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida while executing a search warrant last month.
Trump and those close to him have claimed ― although not in court ― that he had declassified those documents while he was still president, but they haven’t offered evidence.
On Wednesday, the ex-president took it to a new level, insisting that he not only didn’t have to tell anyone but that he could do it without a word.
All he needed was his mind.
“There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it,” he told Hannity. “You’re the president of the United States. You can declassify just by saying, ‘It’s declassified.’ Even by thinking about it.”
Trump also claimed he might not have been the real target of the search anyway, telling Hannity the FBI may have been looking for documents on his 2016 presidential rival, Hillary Clinton.
But it was his claims of being able to use the power of thought to declassify documents that lit up Twitter: