President Trump’s shameful attack on the intelligence community this morning in retaliation for the comments made to the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday by Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel has been understandably met with widespread outrage.
Trump impugned the expertise and reputations of people who have far better understandings of the dire threats facing this country than he — a washed-up reality television star who can’t be bothered to read his briefings — could ever hope to.
The president’s Twitter tantrum was nothing more than a transparent attempt to penalize the intelligence officers for contradicting his lies on ISIS, Iran, and North Korea. Rather than admit to these lies (which he never does) or simply refuse to acknowledge them, Trump doubled down on his misinformation, insisting that he knows more than career intelligence professionals before insultingly adding that maybe they should “go back to school.”
The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong! When I became President Iran was making trouble all over the Middle East, and beyond. Since ending the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, they are MUCH different, but….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2019
….a source of potential danger and conflict. They are testing Rockets (last week) and more, and are coming very close to the edge. There economy is now crashing, which is the only thing holding them back. Be careful of Iran. Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2019
Trump’s tweets are dangerous not only because they strengthen our adversaries by undermining our intelligence agencies, but because they demonstrate that the president is completely untethered from reality. He is sworn to protect this country, but if he insists on fabricating threats for political purposes and ignoring legitimate national security risks, it’s impossible for him to keep us safe.
Now, NBC’s Ken Dilanian has added another disturbing wrinkle to the discourse. He reports that senior intelligence officers have confided in him that it’s “extremely difficult to convince Trump he is wrong about something.”
Evidence has no effect on his opinions and he “believes what he believes.” In other words, the President of the United States, the man ostensibly responsible for running the entire world, prefers to live inside a make-believe world inside his own senile mind. He is a danger to this country and must be impeached.
Senior intelligence officials have said that it's extremely difficult to convince Trump he is wrong about something, no matter how much evidence they can put in front of him. He believes what he believes.
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) January 30, 2019
