We had a GQ thread back in May, Are there any government activities so secret that even the president doesn’t know about them? The consensus was that, legally speaking, under the Constitution it is not possible for any part of the exectuve branch of the United States federal government to classify something so high that they could legitimately tell the POTUS, “Sorry, sir, you aren’t cleared for that information”. Bureaucrats could stall, respectfully question why the President needs that info, resign in a huff, threaten to go to the media, or just flat out lie and (illegally) conceal things. There are also things that are private information of individual citizens and protected by law, like medical records or tax returns–even the President is not above the law. But there can be no legal basis for refusing to disclose a “state secret” to the President on “Need to Know” grounds.