President Trump on Thursday insisted that he's sure he's right in questioning the conclusions of his intelligence officials — well, he's pretty sure.
Trump was asked whether he still has confidence in Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel, after he publicly called their assessments into doubt. "I disagree with certain things that they said," Trump responded, claiming that "time will prove me right, probably."
Trump once again cited Iran as an example of disagreeing with Coats and Haspel, as they recently testified that Iran has not violated the terms of former President Barack Obama's nuclear deal, prompting an angry tweet from Trump who told them to "go back to school!" Trump on Thursday also said that "a tremendous amount of good things are happening" in the fight against ISIS in Syria; his intelligence officials had made clear that ISIS is not, in fact, defeated in Syria as Trump had been declaring.
As to what Trump is basing his conclusions on if not his intelligence officials, he didn't exactly say, but per CNN, he said the briefings he reads are different than what the news covers. The original question about whether Trump has confidence in the leaders of his intelligence agencies was not directly answered.