A new report claims that President Donald Trump is so difficult to work with that U.S. intelligence agencies actually had to hire outside consultants using taxpayer money to help them get through to him. And the best they could come up with is to literally treat Trump like a toddler.
Unlike past presidents, Trump isn’t interested in reading. Seriously, he doesn’t like reading anything unless it’s something that strokes his ego. And that, unfortunately, includes vital national security reports such as those he ignored earlier this year warning about the potential of the coronavirus pandemic to spread to the United States and kill tens of thousands of Americans.
Trump also gets easily distracted and often interrupts briefings to rant about personal slights, criticism, and news stories he doesn’t like.
According to the New York Times:
Briefing him has been so great a challenge compared with his predecessors that the intelligence agencies have hired outside consultants to study how better to present information to him. Working to keep Mr. Trump’s interest exhausted and burned out his first briefer, Ted Gistaro, two former officials said. Mr. Gistaro did not always know what to expect and would sometimes have to brief an erratic and angry president upset over news reports, the officials said.
The president veers off on tangents and getting him back on topic is difficult. He has a short attention span and rarely, if ever, reads intelligence reports, relying instead on conservative media and his friends for information. He is unashamed to interrupt intelligence officers and riff based on tips or gossip he hears from the former casino magnate Steve Wynn, the retired golfer Gary Player or Christopher Ruddy, the conservative media executive.”
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
If that weren’t bad enough, Trump also “rarely absorbs information that he disagrees with or that runs counter to his worldview, the officials said.”
Of course, this is an extraordinarily reckless way to approach intelligence reports. Just because you may not like the information doesn’t make it less important. And ignoring it could have deadly consequences, as is has with this pandemic. Trump didn’t like the bad news about the virus so he pretended it was all a “hoax,” and now more than 90,000 Americans are dead and the death toll will go beyond 100,000.
And what did these consultants help the intelligence community come up with in their desperate effort to provoke Trump’s interest in the reports?
“While Mr. Trump does not appear to read the intelligence reports he is given, he will examine graphs, charts, and tables,” the Times reported. “Satellite pictures clearly interest him, too.”
Pictures, charts, and tables. Clearly, those are not working very well either.
Featured image via screen capture
Like what you see here? Join the discussion on Facebook over at Americans For Sanity!
