The Department of Defense revoked former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall's access to classified information Friday, accusing him of disclosing sensitive details about Air Force One's capabilities, a charge Kendall flatly denies.
Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the action on the social media platform X, declaring that Kendall's eligibility for classified access and his ability to hold any sensitive position were both terminated effective immediately. The revocation follows weeks of turmoil over leaked reports detailing security shortcomings of the Qatari-gifted Boeing 747-8 jet now serving as the presidential aircraft, and it marks the latest in a broader administration crackdown on unauthorized disclosures from former officials.
Kendall, who served as Air Force secretary under the Biden administration from 2021 until early 2025, told The Hill Friday night that no one has identified what he supposedly revealed.
"Extremely careful to not say anything that could be classified, and as far as I know I have not said anything classified."
He added that he has been "very critical of the Trump administration" since leaving office, a remark that raises an obvious question about whether the revocation is tied to what Kendall said or to whom he chose to criticize.
The Pentagon's accusation centers on "unauthorized disclosure of classified information regarding Air Force One's capabilities to a media outlet." But Kendall did not limit his public comments to a single interview. The Washington Examiner reported that Kendall questioned the new jet's security capabilities in interviews with CNN, NPR, and the Wall Street Journal, a sustained public campaign casting doubt on the aircraft's fitness for presidential travel.
On NPR, Kendall said "a month is not enough time to do anything significant" regarding hardware modifications to the plane. He told CNN the Qatari-gifted Boeing 747-8 would take three to four years to reach Air Force One standards. Those are specific technical assessments from a man who ran the Air Force for four years, and the kind of statements that, depending on what they draw from, could easily cross the line between informed opinion and classified disclosure.
Kendall is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning policy organization. A trained lawyer and engineer who spent decades in national security roles, he is not a casual commentator unfamiliar with classification rules. He knows what the boundaries are, or should.
Parnell's announcement left no room for ambiguity about the Pentagon's position:
"Safeguarding classified information is a non-negotiable duty. Those who violate that trust forfeit the privilege of access and any role requiring it."
The revocation does not exist in a vacuum. It lands in the middle of a broader administration effort to identify who disclosed sensitive details about the Qatari-gifted plane's defensive shortcomings. The New York Times reported last month that the Secret Service had advised President Trump not to fly on the new jet at a NATO Summit in Turkey, citing the aircraft's lack of advanced antimissile capabilities found on the older Air Force One.
Trump ultimately flew out of Ankara on the older jet. He denied that security concerns drove the decision. But the reporting set off a firestorm inside the administration. The White House launched an aggressive leak investigation, subpoenaing New York Times reporters and requiring White House officials to turn over their phones as part of the probe.
The administration subpoenaed four New York Times journalists over the leaked report about the plane's security deficiencies, AP News reported. That aggressive posture toward the press underscores how seriously the White House treated the disclosure, not as a policy disagreement, but as a potential compromise of presidential security.
The president has made clear he views unauthorized disclosures as a serious threat. The administration has warned of criminal consequences for leakers in other recent national security contexts, signaling a zero-tolerance approach that extends well beyond the Air Force One matter.
The Pentagon's action against Kendall is not an isolated case. The Trump administration has revoked the security clearances of 37 national security officials, including retired General Mark Milley, as part of a broader effort to hold former officials accountable for conduct the administration considers disloyal or unauthorized. The Kendall revocation adds a former service secretary to that list.
Whether the move is purely administrative or a precursor to criminal referral remains unclear. The Pentagon's announcement made no mention of charges, and Kendall has not been arrested or formally accused in any legal proceeding. But the language, "unauthorized disclosure of classified information", mirrors the statutory framework used in federal leak prosecutions. The distinction between losing a clearance and facing a courtroom is significant, and the Pentagon has not said which direction this is heading.
Kendall's defense rests on a simple claim: nobody has told him what he supposedly revealed. That is either a genuine grievance about due process or a careful legal posture from a man who knows how these investigations work. Either way, the Pentagon has not publicly identified the specific classified information it believes Kendall disclosed, leaving a gap between the accusation and the evidence presented so far.
The broader fight over the Qatari-gifted jet's fitness for presidential service has played out across multiple fronts. Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic effort to halt taxpayer-funded upgrades on the aircraft, and the plane's security profile has become a flashpoint in the ongoing debate over defense priorities and presidential protection.
Frank Kendall is not a whistleblower who stumbled into a classified conversation. He ran the United States Air Force. He oversaw the service's most sensitive programs. He understands classification markings, compartmented information, and the legal obligations that follow a former official out the door.
He chose to sit for interviews with CNN, NPR, and the Wall Street Journal, not to raise a quiet concern through proper channels, but to publicly challenge the security of the aircraft carrying the president of the United States. Whether his specific statements crossed the legal line is a question investigators will have to answer. But the decision to conduct a multi-outlet media campaign questioning Air Force One's defensive capabilities was a choice, not an accident.
Military accountability cuts in every direction. The same standards that apply to an Air Force major facing investigation for crossing a line apply to a former secretary who may have done the same, and the consequences should be proportional to the responsibility held.
Fox News confirmed that the revocation bars Kendall from holding any sensitive position going forward, effectively closing the door on any future government role requiring a clearance. For a man who spent decades in national security, that is not a slap on the wrist. It is a professional verdict.
Kendall says he was careful. The Pentagon says he was not. The facts will sort that out. But a former Air Force secretary who goes on a media tour discussing the president's plane and then protests that no one told him what he did wrong is asking the public to believe he wandered into a minefield with his eyes closed.
The people responsible for protecting the president deserve better than that, and so do the taxpayers who trusted Kendall with their secrets in the first place.