U.S. spy agencies are reportedly freaked out about sharing intelligence with President-elect Trump
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.
"I'm half dreading, half holding my breath going to work today," an unidentified senior U.S. national security official tells The Washington Post. "It's fear of the unknown," he added. "We don't know what he's really like under all the talk.... How will that play out over the next four years or even the next few months? I don't know if there is going to be a tidal wave of departures of people who were going to stay around to help Hillary's team but are now going to be, 'I'm out of here.'" Also in The Post, Richard H. Kohn, an emeritus profess of peace, war, and defense at UNC, pleads with prominent Republican national security leaders to serve in the Trump administration, even though they "dislike and distrust" Trump. You can read Kohn's op-ed at The Washington Post.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Sepsis ‘breakthrough’: the world’s first targeted treatment?The Explainer New drug could reverse effects of sepsis, rather than trying to treat infection with antibiotics
-
James Van Der Beek obituary: fresh-faced Dawson’s Creek starIn The Spotlight Van Der Beek fronted one of the most successful teen dramas of the 90s – but his Dawson fame proved a double-edged sword
-
Is Andrew’s arrest the end for the monarchy?Today's Big Question The King has distanced the Royal Family from his disgraced brother but a ‘fit of revolutionary disgust’ could still wipe them out
-
NIH director Bhattacharya tapped as acting CDC headSpeed Read Jay Bhattacharya, a critic of the CDC’s Covid-19 response, will now lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
-
Witkoff and Kushner tackle Ukraine, Iran in GenevaSpeed Read Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held negotiations aimed at securing a nuclear deal with Iran and an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine
-
Pentagon spokesperson forced out as DHS’s resignsSpeed Read Senior military adviser Col. David Butler was fired by Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin is resigning
-
Judge orders Washington slavery exhibit restoredSpeed Read The Trump administration took down displays about slavery at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia
-
Hyatt chair joins growing list of Epstein files losersSpeed Read Thomas Pritzker stepped down as executive chair of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation over his ties with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
-
Judge blocks Hegseth from punishing Kelly over videoSpeed Read Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed for the senator to be demoted over a video in which he reminds military officials they should refuse illegal orders
-
Trump’s EPA kills legal basis for federal climate policySpeed Read The government’s authority to regulate several planet-warming pollutants has been repealed
-
House votes to end Trump’s Canada tariffsSpeed Read Six Republicans joined with Democrats to repeal the president’s tariffs
