Several senior intelligence analysts who prepare the top-secret briefs for Donald Trump are speaking out for the first time. In interviews with Time Magazine, they warn Trump’s disregard for their assessments is endangering American national security. From Time:
Citing multiple in-person episodes, these intelligence officials say Trump displays what one called “willful ignorance” when presented with analyses generated by America’s $81 billion-a-year intelligence services. The officials, who include analysts who prepare Trump’s briefs and the briefers themselves, describe futile attempts to keep his attention by using visual aids, confining some briefing points to two or three sentences, and repeating his name and title as frequently as possible.
Briefers have reported this as a continual problem during the two years of the Trump presidency. For example, Time says:
“After a briefing in preparation for a meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May, for example, the subject turned to the British Indian Ocean Territory of Diego Garcia. The island is home to an important airbase and a U.S. Naval Support Facility that are central to America’s ability to project power in the region, including in the war in Afghanistan.
“The President, officials familiar with the briefing said, asked two questions: Are the people nice, and are the beaches good? “Some of us wondered if he was thinking about our alliance with the Brits and the security issues in an important area where the Chinese have been increasingly active, or whether he was thinking like a real estate developer,” one of the officials said wryly.”
But many subjects are nothing to laugh about, such as the threat of North Korea’s nuclear missile program. After Trump’s summit with Kim Jong-Un, North Korea claimed it had destroyed an underground nuclear facility, a claim that Trump has bragged about. But, analysts warned Trump the facility was so massive, with so many entrances, it could easily be reopened.
“The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGIA), which oversees the spy satellites that map and photograph key areas, had tried to impress upon Trump the size and complexity of the North Korean site. In preparing one briefing for the President on the issue early in his administration, the NGIA built a model of the facility with a removable roof, according to two officials. To help Trump grasp the size of the facility, the NGIA briefers built a miniature version New York’s Statue of Liberty to scale and put it inside the model.”
Trump has reportedly ignored the assessments and exaggerated the claims of North Korea ahead of a possible second summit.
