What happens when the CIA briefs Trump?
An item from a segment on NPR yesterday about Trump’s visit to the CIA.
STEVE INSKEEP: So how awkward is it that the new president has taken office – the new administration has come in – and there is still, so far as we know, an investigation of the president’s ties to Russia?
MARY LOUISE KELLY: It is awkward. And the latest twist is The Wall Street Journal reporting this morning that Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Flynn, is under a counter intelligence investigation because of suspected ties to Russia. The Senate Intelligence Committee is also investigating that very question.
So here – here is the question that another CIA veteran put to me after watching Trump’s speech this weekend. This is Steve Hall. He was CIA chief of Russia operations. And he asked, what happens when the CIA collects a stellar piece of intelligence that maybe puts Vladimir Putin in a bad light? Steve Hall said, what happens when the CIA briefs Trump, and he wants to know the source? And Hall’s quote directly to me was, how can you say, no, we don’t trust you with the sourcing of that information? That is a live question today at Langley.
Very live indeed, I should think.
If you’re not scared, you’re not paying attention.
And Trump took his team of groupies with him to the CIA to applaud on cue during his speech, just like he had them do at his first press conference. To use his own wording against him, “sad.” He’s not going to impress the CIA. After all, they really know things, and they really are smart people. Of course, his own supporters might think it was the CIA itself applauding Dear Leader. His addiction to the sycophancy of others is really remarkably alarming. You’d think that this sort of self aggrandisement (which has been on show for decades) would have turned off good old, plain American folks. I know, still shaking my head over his having been elected in the first place.
Tip for CIA officers: you may be able to distract Trump by giving your sources cool code names. We know he loves General Mattis because his nickname is “Mad Dog.”
“Pussy Hat”?
All the time people have been exposed to him as a reality TV personality has worn the edges off that, for a large segment of the electorate. He’s a perpetually angry narcissist, yes, and he’s incapable of appreciating reality outside his fantasies. But he’s had years and years in people’s living rooms on the tube to become a (nominally) well-known figure. Fun, when you’re not in danger from his whims, or when he’s not after you and yours. For the poorly educated, low-information voter, that suffices for “knowing” a candidate, and familiarity breeds trust. He’s successful (defined as “has money”), he’s clearly not smarter than they are (so they won’t have anti-intellectualism triggered by him), and he’s offering simple, off-the-cuff “solutions” that make him come off as a straight-talker.
None of that stands up to much thinking, but many voters don’t care to engage in critical thinking before picking a favorite team/tribe and rooting for them.
Meanwhile, their familiarity with Hillary Clinton came from twenty plus years of smear campaigns and the impression this woman is a professional politician. When politicians are all suspect exactly because they ARE politicians, competence and experience count against a candidate. So the more inexperienced, incompetent, unintelligent, and unprepared a candidate can appear, the more that segment of voters will like them. This is what we get.
Actually, so are a lot of his voters.
“this woman” is a woman, and smart. That’s all they really need to know. That’s all my sister or mother knew about her when she first moved to the White House with Bill in 1992. It was more than enough to make them loathe her.
Silly Ophelia, this post title is all wrong. Trump briefs the CIA, not the other way around. He knows things.