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Gap continues to widen between Trump and intelligence community on key issues
David Fahrenthold Retweeted“There was this gasp” at CIA when Trump sided with Putin in Helsinki. “You literally had people in panic mode watching it at Langley. On all floors. Just shock.”
Link to tweet
National Security
Gap continues to widen between Trump and intelligence community on key issues
By Greg Miller
December 11 at 12:37 PM
President Trump continues to reject the judgments of U.S. spy agencies on major foreign policy fronts, creating a dynamic in which intelligence analysts frequently see troubling gaps between the president’s public statements and the facts laid out for him in daily briefings on world events, current and former U.S. officials said. ... The pattern has become a source of mounting concern to senior U.S. intelligence officials who had hoped that Trump would become less hostile to their work as he settled into office and more receptive to the information that spy agencies spend billions of dollars and sometimes put lives at risk gathering.
Instead, presidential distrust that once seemed confined mainly to the intelligence community’s assessments about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election has spread across a range of global issues. Among them are North Korea’s willingness to abandon its nuclear weapons program, Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions, the existence and implications of global climate change and the role of the Saudi crown prince in the murder of a dissident journalist. ... “There is extraordinary frustration,” a U.S. intelligence official said. The CIA and other agencies continue to devote enormous “time, energy and resources” to ensuring that accurate intelligence is delivered to Trump, the official said, but his seeming imperviousness to such material often renders “all of that a waste.”
....
Trump came into office denouncing the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential race, a case that has only grown stronger with evidence gathered by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. ... Trump’s handling of the matter has been a much greater source of dismay inside the intelligence community than widely understood. One official said CIA employees were staggered by Trump’s performance during a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki earlier this year in which Trump treated denials by Putin as so “strong and powerful” that they offset the conclusions of the CIA.
“There was this gasp” among those watching at CIA, the official said. “You literally had people in panic mode watching it at Langley. On all floors. Just shock.”
....
John Hudson, Julie Tate and Shane Harris contributed to this report.
Greg Miller is a national security correspondent for The Washington Post and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of "The Apprentice," a book on Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential race and the fallout under the Trump administration. Follow https://twitter.com/gregpmiller
Gap continues to widen between Trump and intelligence community on key issues
By Greg Miller
December 11 at 12:37 PM
President Trump continues to reject the judgments of U.S. spy agencies on major foreign policy fronts, creating a dynamic in which intelligence analysts frequently see troubling gaps between the president’s public statements and the facts laid out for him in daily briefings on world events, current and former U.S. officials said. ... The pattern has become a source of mounting concern to senior U.S. intelligence officials who had hoped that Trump would become less hostile to their work as he settled into office and more receptive to the information that spy agencies spend billions of dollars and sometimes put lives at risk gathering.
Instead, presidential distrust that once seemed confined mainly to the intelligence community’s assessments about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election has spread across a range of global issues. Among them are North Korea’s willingness to abandon its nuclear weapons program, Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions, the existence and implications of global climate change and the role of the Saudi crown prince in the murder of a dissident journalist. ... “There is extraordinary frustration,” a U.S. intelligence official said. The CIA and other agencies continue to devote enormous “time, energy and resources” to ensuring that accurate intelligence is delivered to Trump, the official said, but his seeming imperviousness to such material often renders “all of that a waste.”
....
Trump came into office denouncing the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential race, a case that has only grown stronger with evidence gathered by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. ... Trump’s handling of the matter has been a much greater source of dismay inside the intelligence community than widely understood. One official said CIA employees were staggered by Trump’s performance during a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki earlier this year in which Trump treated denials by Putin as so “strong and powerful” that they offset the conclusions of the CIA.
“There was this gasp” among those watching at CIA, the official said. “You literally had people in panic mode watching it at Langley. On all floors. Just shock.”
....
John Hudson, Julie Tate and Shane Harris contributed to this report.
Greg Miller is a national security correspondent for The Washington Post and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of "The Apprentice," a book on Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential race and the fallout under the Trump administration. Follow https://twitter.com/gregpmiller
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