Trump reportedly wants his intelligence briefers to discuss business, winners, Angela Merkel

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published 4 March 2019

President Trump's daily intelligence briefings focus less on the terrorist threats and covert missions his predecessors were interested in and more on the subjects intelligence agencies have learned "their No. 1 customer wants to hear about — economics and trade," The New York Times reports. "Intelligence officers, steeped in how Mr. Trump views the world, now work to answer his repeated question: Who is winning? What the president wants to know, according to former officials, is what country is making more money or gaining a financial advantage."

The President's Daily Brief is presented to Trump about twice a week now by Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel, featuring "far more charts and visual aids to appeal to Mr. Trump," the Times says. National Security Adviser John Bolton reads and "conveys the highlights" of the written report to Trump on days when Coats and Haspel aren't invited.

Among the things that bore Trump in the traditional briefings are the "detailed analyses of the activities and motivations of secondary foreign officials" — he "wants information about the leader of various countries, not the underlings," the Times reports. "He has also shown a fascination with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, repeatedly asking why she will not cut a deal with him on military spending despite his advisers' explanation" that Merkel is constrained by her governing coalition, and why Germany is buying Russian natural gas.

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Trump also repeatedly asks "intelligence and military briefers about the cost of American bases overseas and the defense expenditures of allies in Europe and Asia," and he has "privately complained after national security briefings that, 'My generals don't understand business,'" a former administration official tells the Times. You can read more about Trump's intelligence briefing, and his overall critique that the intelligence community doesn't account enough for economics and trade as fundamental drivers of international conflict, at The New York Times.

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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.