U.S. spy agencies are reportedly freaked out about sharing intelligence with President-elect Trump

U.S.intelligence community is reportedly very nervous about President Trump
(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

It's always fraught business meeting your new boss, but for America's intelligence community, disclosing America's national security secrets to President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly especially nerve-wracking. Trump has been dismissive and disdainful of the conclusions reached by the spy agencies, especially regarding Russia and Syria, and suggested that as president, he would order the CIA to resume torturing suspects. "I cannot remember another president-elect who has been so dismissive of intelligence received during a campaign or so suspicious of the quality and honesty of the intelligence he was about to receive," former CIA Director Michael Hayden told The Washington Post.

As early as Thursday, intelligence officials will give Trump his first full intelligence briefing, likely the same daily intel briefing President Obama gets, and there's a "palpable sense of dread" in the intelligence community, reports The Post's Greg Miller. According to European intelligence officials cited by Newsweek, the Kremlin has a dossier on Trump, including potentially compromising video of Trump in a Moscow hotel room. Trump's only prominent adviser from the intelligence community is retired Gen. Michael Flynn, who was forced out as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and then seen dining with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.