Senile Donald Trump isn’t even bothering with intel briefings
Back in August 2020, I wrote about Donald Trump’s dangerous refusal to take his intelligence briefings seriously. At the time, a HuffPost investigation found that Trump received briefings an average of only around twice a week. By contrast, his predecessors, President Barack Obama and even George W. Bush, made a point to read the briefings (called the President’s “Daily” Brief) each morning.
It is now almost five years later, and Trump has managed to outdo himself in the wrong direction. Since his inauguration in January, Trump has received a total of 12 daily intelligence briefings, according to a report from Politico. Not only is that 12 total briefings over the course of several months, but it includes only two in-person updates by the time March arrived.
Trump’s new behavior with intelligence briefings makes his first-term routine, when he averaged two per week, look almost competent and disciplined by comparison. When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he resumed the daily briefings and engaged with national security officials about their content, as any American should expect from their commander-in-chief.
Not surprisingly, the White House now claims that Trump stays informed in other ways, such as by conversing with staff, even as officials refuse to answer why he gets briefings even less than during his first term. As one former CIA analyst warned Politico, “The point of having an $80 billion intelligence service is to inform the president to avert a strategic surprise.”
Trump is proving yet again to be even more disengaged and deranged than last time around. Whether he is skipping intelligence briefings, firing more experts, or undermining additional institutions and norms, Trump’s lack of a disciplined interest in keeping America safe deepens every day he sits in the Oval Office.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month