It’s widely known that Donald Trump doesn’t read his intelligence briefings as often as former presidents have, but a new report shows a decline in recent weeks. The Huffington Post found that the president “went from a high of 4.1 briefings per week on average in March 2017 to 0.7 per week since July 1, shortly after it became public that he had ignored intelligence reports about Russia offering bounties to the Taliban for each American soldier killed in Afghanistan.” Oh, that would explain why the president hasn’t taken action with Russia. Trump is deliberately ignoring the reports, or the president is just a befuddled old man that doesn’t know what he’s doing — unfit for the highest seat in the land.
The report reveals that Monday’s briefing was the first one he read in August and the first since July 22, and that month had only three briefings scheduled. And that’s astonishing considering the Russian bounties story and interference with our upcoming elections from foreign players.
“It’s remarkable that, even at their peak, they never exceeded 20 per month,” said Ned Price, a former CIA analyst and a spokesman for the National Security Council during the Obama administration, the outlet reports.
“And now that they are arguably more important than ever, as foreign actors are again interfering in our democracy, tensions with Beijing are swirling, and America’s adversaries and competitors are becoming more emboldened, the president can’t seem to find the time to be briefed,” he added.
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Former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush took their briefings early in the morning. In contrast, Trump spends his morning watching the television and unleashing tweets to attack those that are critical of his presidency.
When asked about the Russian bounties story recently by Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, Trump called the reports “fake news,” and said that they had “never reached” his desk.
“I read a lot. I spend a lot of time at meetings. Usually, it’s once a day or at least two or three times a week, intelligence meetings,” Trump insisted.
This is absolutely frightening:
One former top White House aide, asked on condition of anonymity whether Trump actually took more intelligence briefings than were reflected on his public schedules, began laughing aloud. The aide’s reaction was the same when asked whether Trump reads the intelligence briefing books prepared for him.
And then there’s this:
Trump’s engagement on intelligence has become a major issue in his reelection bid, after reports earlier this year that he ignored warnings in his PDBs in January that a pneumonia-like virus was spreading in China. Trump did not have a briefing on his schedule until Jan. 6, a week after Taiwanese authorities raised the alarm with U.S. officials about an epidemic on the mainland.
“Whether it’s ignoring the impending pandemic or looking the other way in response to Moscow’s bounties on our service members, Trump has demonstrated time and again that he’s not one to put America’s national security first,” Price said. “Especially when doing so comes into conflict with what’s best for him politically.”
In 2017, Trump revealed that he thought being the leader of the free world would be easier than it is.
“I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,” Trump told Reuters in an interview. “This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”
I have an idea. Put “Antifa” across the folder of each written briefing then maybe, just maybe Trump will look it over. Or “Crooked Hillary” or “Obama.”
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
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