Trump used to give Obama a hard time for supposedly missing his intelligence briefings

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

published 12 December 2016

President-elect Donald Trump doesn't seem to think it's a big deal if he skips intelligence briefings, but he certainly found it an objectionable habit when President Obama was rumored to be missing them. Between September 2012 and October 2014, Trump, who said Sunday he doesn't "have to be told the same thing in the same words every day" in daily intelligence briefings, tweeted about Obama's attendance on at least three separate occasions:

While Trump admitted that he's opting out of intelligence briefings, critics' claims that Obama had missed half of his briefings turned out to be false. In 2012, The Washington Post determined Obama wasn't opting out of receiving the information, but simply receiving it "in a different manner than his predecessor," opting to read the briefing ahead of time instead of sitting down for oral briefings.

Trump, meanwhile, is reportedly sitting down for a briefing just once a week, far fewer than is typical for the president-elect. As Trump would say, "Too busy I guess!"