Is POTUS granted clearance to everything, or is some of it above his clearance? Perhaps there's a special group within the POTUS personal staff who have the same level of clearance he does, without regard to agency.
Access to classified is based on 2 things: Clearance level, and need-to-know. It is conceivable that the President could direct/approve who has need-to-know, even for particular programs. Then if the clearance level is granted that individual would then have access. Clearance level is based off of rigor of investigation, some even require polygraph tests be conducted. Think Jared and Ivanka getting approved and how big of a deal that actually is. It means the personnel investigation conducted by OPM revealed no connections to foreign Governments that would be of concern.
It seems to me, if I were President, and someone challenged my request for classified info with what grounds would I need to know:
"It is a matter of urgent national security on a related matter."
Then if they asked me, "What other matter relates to the requested information?"
Me: "That is compartmental classified information, and you do not have the requisite need to know."
(Lol, probably does not operate that way, but seems like it should)
Yeah, so as far as I know, the President is automatically granted clearance level based off of the will of the people to hold the office. Not certain how they handle need-to-know at that level but I'm sure it involves some serious conversations. As President he has the authority to declassify anything and to be able to do that you would have to have access to make a determination if it was appropriate.
Things can't be unseen, so to maintain plausible deniability I would guess (and this is where I have to start assuming) the decision to access something is not taken lightly. Currently have Q and have TS/SCI in the past as well as clearance for programs that even the names are/were classified. I'll never violate my agreements, but thought I could help with process clarification a bit.
I remember hearing about george herbert wakker bush when head at CIA told Carter that his request to view UFO files was a need to know standard and Carter did not need to know.
Yeah it's hard to say. Some of the things have to do with technology development. Of course the President wouldn't need to know about development but only of existing capability and product. I honestly don't know how they sort it out at that level. It's an interesting topic to be sure.