Trump Has Nearly Eliminated Intelligence Briefings From His Schedule Entirely
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Politics
Trump Has Nearly Eliminated Intelligence Briefings From His Schedule Entirely
August 11, 2020, 5:27 PMWASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s interest in taking intelligence briefings has been declining steadily since his first months in office and has dropped to near zero in recent weeks, according to a HuffPost review of all of his daily schedules.
Trump went from a high of 4.1 briefings per week on average in March 2017 to 0.7 per week since July 1, shortly after it became public that he had ignored intelligence reports about Russia offering bounties to the Taliban for each American soldier killed in Afghanistan.
Monday’s briefing, in fact, was the first in August and the first since July 22. That month had only three briefings scheduled.
“It’s remarkable that, even at their peak, they never exceeded 20 per month,” said Ned Price, a former CIA analyst and a spokesman for the National Security Council during the Obama administration.
A HuffPost review of President Donald Trump's daily schedules shows his declining interest in intelligence briefings over time. January 2017 and August 2020 are partial months. Source: White House (Photo: S.V. Date/HuffPost)
Briefings from intelligence community officials are based on a package of report summaries from around the world prepared in the pre-dawn hours each morning specifically for the president. The sessions are among the few responsibilities in the modern presidency that cannot be delegated to others.
Both of Trump’s immediate predecessors took daily briefings in the White House. Republican George W. Bush typically had his shortly after his arrival in the Oval Office at 6:45 a.m. each day. Democrat Barack Obama had the written material, known as the “President’s Daily Brief,” loaded onto his iPad by 6 a.m. each day, when he would read it prior to the in-person session later in the morning.
Trump, by contrast, rarely gets to the West Wing before noon after spending much of each morning watching television and posting tweets based on his viewing. He displayed a diligence toward intelligence briefings only briefly, upon first taking office. In March 2017 he had 18 scheduled briefings on the 23 available weekdays. In April 2017, he had 17 briefings on the 20 available weekdays.
But starting that May, right after he fired FBI Director James Comey for failing to end the investigation into the assistance his campaign received from Russia, the frequency of his briefings fell dramatically. Up until that day, May 9, Trump had taken 54 intelligence briefings in his 110 days in office, an average of 3.4 per week. In the 1,200 days since then, he has received 281 briefings, an average of only 1.6 per week.
White House officials for years have denied that Trump has been getting briefings more and more infrequently, insisting that the public schedule does not always reflect the briefings he receives. They have declined to explain why some briefings wind up on the public schedule but not others.
On Tuesday, though, White House communications director Alyssa Farah said: “The president is briefed on critical intelligence daily by his national security adviser, his career CIA briefer, and/or his chief of staff. He also takes part in full formal presidential intelligence briefings near weekly or every other week with the CIA director, national security adviser, director of national intelligence, White House counsel, and usually the secretary of treasury, secretary of state, and sometime the secretary of defense in person in the Oval Office.”
Trump has demonstrated time and again that he’s not one to put America’s national security first. Ned Price, former CIA analyst and National Security Council spokesman under Obama
Trump himself, asked about intelligence briefings in a recent interview with Axios, called the reports of the Russian bounties “fake news,” that they had “never reached” his desk, and that he does read the PDBs and is regularly briefed.
“I read a lot. I spend a lot of time at meetings. Usually it’s once a day or at least two or three times a week, intelligence meetings,” Trump said.
One former top White House aide, asked on condition of anonymity whether Trump actually took more intelligence briefings than were reflected on his public schedules, began laughing aloud. The aide’s reaction was the same when asked whether Trump reads the intelligence briefing books prepared for him.
Trump’s last national security adviser, John Bolton, has stated publicly that Trump does not read his intelligence briefing book and that making him absorb information was a difficult challenge.
“He’s just not receptive to new facts,” Bolton told CBS News last month. “The intelligence briefings don’t communicate as much information as they should. We tried to think of ways to change that. I think it was probably a doomed effort.”
Trump’s engagement on intelligence has become a major issue in his reelection bid, after reports earlier this year that he ignored warnings in his PDBs in January that a pneumonia-like virus was spreading in China. Trump did not have a briefing on his schedule until Jan. 6, a week after Taiwanese authorities raised the alarm with U.S. officials about an epidemic on the mainland.
He then spent more than two months downplaying the virus and praising China’s dictator for his great work and “transparency” in controlling the coronavirus, even as it had gained a foothold in the United States and was spreading across the country.
Months later, first The New York Times and then other outlets reported that Trump had ignored intelligence that Russia was paying rewards of up to $100,000 per American soldier murdered in Afghanistan. Trump has called those reports “a hoax” and “fake news” and acknowledged that he has never raised the issue with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in the numerous phone calls they have shared this year.
“Whether it’s ignoring the impending pandemic or looking the other way in response to Moscow’s bounties on our service members, Trump has demonstrated time and again that he’s not one to put America’s national security first,” Price said. “Especially when doing so comes into conflict with what’s best for him politically.”
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s interest in taking intelligence briefings has been declining steadily since his first months in office and has dropped to near zero in recent weeks, according to a HuffPost review of all of his daily schedules.
Trump went from a high of 4.1 briefings per week on average in March 2017 to 0.7 per week since July 1, shortly after it became public that he had ignored intelligence reports about Russia offering bounties to the Taliban for each American soldier killed in Afghanistan.
Monday’s briefing, in fact, was the first in August and the first since July 22. That month had only three briefings scheduled.
“It’s remarkable that, even at their peak, they never exceeded 20 per month,” said Ned Price, a former CIA analyst and a spokesman for the National Security Council during the Obama administration.
Trump himself, asked about intelligence briefings in a recent interview with Axios, called the reports of the Russian bounties “fake news,” that they had “never reached” his desk, and that he does read the PDBs and is regularly briefed.
“I read a lot. I spend a lot of time at meetings. Usually it’s once a day or at least two or three times a week, intelligence meetings,” Trump said.
One former top White House aide, asked on condition of anonymity whether Trump actually took more intelligence briefings than were reflected on his public schedules, began laughing aloud. The aide’s reaction was the same when asked whether Trump reads the intelligence briefing books prepared for him.
I heard this interview, at this part, he backpedaled very quickly from once a day, to two or three times a week.
Trump’s last national security adviser, John Bolton, has stated publicly that Trump does not read his intelligence briefing book and that making him absorb information was a difficult challenge.
“He’s just not receptive to new facts,” Bolton told CBS News last month. “The intelligence briefings don’t communicate as much information as they should. We tried to think of ways to change that. I think it was probably a doomed effort.”
They had to include lots of 'pictures and graphs' to hold tRump's interest.
'Intelligence' meetings, that leaves tRump out
Why read the PDB's if you don't understand them?
"Trump Has Nearly Eliminated Intelligence From His Administration Entirely"
And I'm not talking about Intelligence Agencies...
EXACTLY!
Here's an 'intelligent' tRump voter
God damnit.
Bush was bad enough to have hired people in his administration who failed to follow up on a memo that said Bin Laden determined to attack us, but to have another Republican in office who fails to even read memos or be briefed on threats is just the primary reason he should be immediately removed from office. He is the clear and present danger. After the news came out about bounties on our serving veterans by way of Russia, Trump has gotten even worse at facing the realities of these threats.
He is such a fucking bitch. Honestly, the worst leader of all time. I have mentioned it before that I have asked my dad and a few other folks if they would want Trump as their supervisor at work, and all I ever hear are deflections and whataboutisms, never a direct answer which means the answer is no.
But seriously, Trump supporters here, would you want to work for him? And of course your duties are things other than sucking his micropenis, you would have like an actual job with actual responsibilities. Who wants Trump to be their boss (again, sucking his dick is not part of the job, you actually have to do shit)?
He only listens to Putin's briefings now.
They're not briefings, they're commands. Trump is very obedient to his commander.
Trump and intelligence have never gone together, so this is hardly surprising.
Trump's concern does not lie with national problems. His immediate priority now is his best strategy to avoid, circumvent or delay any sealed indictments awaiting him if he loses.