If you’ve spent any time watching cable news over the last decade, you’ve definitely seen the face. Stressed. Intense. Slightly hawkish. That’s John Brennan, the man who ran the Central Intelligence Agency from 2013 to 2017.
Most people know him as the guy who got into a very public, very messy spat with Donald Trump. But honestly? That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Brennan is basically a walking history book of American intelligence, and his story is way more complicated than just some "Resistance" figure on Twitter. He’s been in the room for everything from the rise of drone warfare to the hunt for Bin Laden, and even now, in 2026, his legacy is something people are still arguing about in the halls of D.C.
The Long Road to Langley
John Brennan wasn’t born into the elite world of spies. He grew up in North Bergen, New Jersey. His dad was an Irish immigrant who worked as a blacksmith and later a steamfitter. That blue-collar Jersey energy? It never really left him.
He went to Fordham, studied in Cairo, and learned to speak Arabic fluently. Interestingly, he once admitted to voting for the Communist Party candidate in 1976—not because he was a communist, but as a "protest vote" against the system back then. You’d think that would be a career-killer for a spy, but he still got into the CIA in 1980.
He spent 25 years climbing the ladder. He was an analyst. He was the station chief in Saudi Arabia during the Khobar Towers bombing. He was the guy who briefed Bill Clinton every morning. By the time he became John Brennan former CIA Director, he had already seen the darkest corners of the world.
The Drone Architect
One thing you’ve gotta understand about Brennan: he was the "priest" of the drone program.
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During the Obama years, before he even took the top job at Langley, he was the White House counterterrorism advisor. He was the one who basically built the "disposition matrix." That’s a fancy term for a kill list. He’s been criticized—heavily—for this. There were claims that drone strikes resulted in "zero collateral deaths" for an entire year. Human rights groups and investigative journalists, like those at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, later proved that wasn't exactly true.
It’s a weird contradiction. Brennan is a man of deep faith, yet he was the principal coordinator for a program that decided who lived and who died from 30,000 feet up.
The Most Controversial John Brennan Former CIA Director Moments
You can't talk about Brennan without talking about the Senate spying scandal. This was a low point. In 2014, the CIA was caught snooping on the Senate Intelligence Committee's computers while they were investigating the agency's past use of "enhanced interrogation" (basically, torture).
Brennan denied it at first. Then he had to apologize.
- He told the Council on Foreign Relations the CIA wouldn't do such a thing.
- The Inspector General’s report proved they did.
- It created a massive rift between the agency and the people who are supposed to oversee it.
And then there’s the Trump era.
When Trump took office, Brennan didn’t just fade into a quiet retirement. He became one of the president's loudest critics. He called Trump's behavior "treasonous" after the Helsinki summit with Putin. This led to something unprecedented: Trump revoked Brennan’s security clearance in 2018.
Fast forward to 2025 and early 2026, and we've seen this cycle repeat. In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order revoking the clearances of the "51 intelligence officials" who signed that letter about the Hunter Biden laptop—Brennan was right at the top of that list.
What Most People Get Wrong
People tend to put Brennan in a box. If you’re on the right, you think he’s a "Deep State" operative. If you’re on the left, you might see him as a hero of the resistance—or a war criminal for the drone program.
The reality is sort of in the middle. He’s a career bureaucrat who truly believes in the mission of the CIA, but he’s also a man who has made massive mistakes. He once withdrew his name from consideration for the CIA job in 2008 because of his ties to the Bush-era "extraordinary rendition" program. He later claimed he opposed waterboarding, but his former colleagues said he wasn't exactly shouting it from the rooftops at the time.
Why He Still Matters in 2026
Even today, Brennan is a fixture on NBC and MSNBC. He’s still writing books—his memoir Undaunted is a must-read if you want to understand how the agency actually works.
He’s currently a Distinguished Fellow at Fordham Law and still consults on global security. But more than his current jobs, he matters because he represents the "old guard" of intelligence. He represents a time when the CIA was moving away from the "boots on the ground" wars of the 2000s toward the high-tech, cyber-focused, and drone-heavy warfare of the 2020s.
Actionable Insights: Navigating the News
If you’re trying to make sense of the headlines involving John Brennan former CIA Director, here’s how to look at it:
- Check the Source Context: When you see Brennan on TV, remember he’s an analyst now, not a neutral observer. He has a very specific worldview shaped by 30+ years in the intelligence community.
- Look for the "Oversight" Angle: Whenever a new intelligence scandal breaks, look back at the Brennan-Senate fight. It’s the blueprint for how the executive branch and Congress clash over secrets.
- Read Between the Lines: In his memoir Undaunted, Brennan explains the "mechanics" of power. If you want to understand how a "kill list" is actually formed or how a President is briefed, his accounts are the most detailed ones available to the public.
- Follow the Security Clearance Debate: The 2025 revocation of his clearance is a big deal for civil service law. It’s about whether a President can use a clearance as a weapon against critics. Watch the court cases—they will define the future of the "Deep State" debate.
Brennan is a complicated guy. He’s a Jersey kid who ended up deciding the fate of nations. Whether you like him or hate him, you can't deny that he's one of the most influential figures in the history of American spying.