It’s no secret that Trump has been attacking his own intelligence agencies since before they were actually his intelligence agencies. Most people thought this would subside once he took office.
Most people were wrong.
The baseless attacks have only escalated since he won the Presidency and installed his own people at the helm of the entities he continues to trash. This is dangerous on many levels – and has been discussed before – but a recent turn of events has taken this animosity to whole new levels of danger.
What Did He Do THIS Time?
So, Trump got another big, beautiful letter… and promptly stuck his foot in his mouth.
In case you missed it, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of Kim Jong Un, was a CIA source, who met “several times” with agency operatives. Kim Jong Nam was murdered with an illegal – and extraordinarily deadly – nerve agent, VX at an airport in Malaysia in 2017.
A short background on Kim Jong Nam:
He was the heir-apparent of North Korea until he lost favor with his father, Kim Jong Il, sometime between 2001 and 2005. Kim left North Korea in 2003 and was rumored to be living in Macau.
There are several rumors about why he lost favor, and we’ll probably never know what was actually true: While some claim he embarrassed his father, Kim himself claims that he lost favor because he advocated for reform and modernization for North Korea, leading his father to accuse him of becoming a capitalist.
Kim survived an assassination attempt at an airport in Budapest in 2006, and another in 2012. He was finally killed in what became an international incident at that airport in Malaysia in 2017.
That would be a hell of a source to have; one that the CIA would have spent a long time cultivating and who could have potentially revealed some vitally important information about North Korea. If this report by the WSJ is true, it’s hard to overstate exactly how important Kim Jong Nam could have been; North Korea is hands down our most-difficult intelligence collection target for several reasons;
- As a nation, they largely aren’t connected to the internet, so electronic surveillance is limited.
- Aerial reconnaissance is difficult because much of their work is done in complexes that are buried deep underground.
- Human Intelligence (HUMINT) sources are few and far between. This is partially due to the brutality of the regime in general, and certainly not helped by the way defectors are handled if they’re caught.
Anyway, to get to the point: when Trump was asked about the report on Kim’s half-brother, he said, “I saw the information about the CIA with respect to his brother or half-brother and I would tell him that would not happen under my auspice, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t let that happen under my auspices.”
I wish I was making that up, but I’m not. That’s a real quote from the President of the United States in regards to intelligence collection on one of our most dangerous adversaries.
There are a few possibilities here, none good:
- The President of the United States doesn’t understand the CIA’s purpose. Before you hit me with the “duh, Angry, he doesn’t understand *anything*” – hear me out. A lot of Presidents have – at least initially – misunderstood *how* intelligence agencies operate; very few have misunderstood *why* intelligence agencies exist. Trump stands alone in openly denigrating their work and their purpose.
- Trump understands, but a “win” is more important to him than the future wellbeing of our country.
- Trump wants the public not to trust his own intelligence agencies.
That’s it. Those are the only reasons I could even think of to say something so asinine. The morale at Langley after those comments is probably hovering somewhere just above the basement. The only silver lining is that Trump is almost entirely a figurehead when it comes to the greater IC; he doesn’t make decisions, because his White House is too lazy, too stupid -or both – to actually issue proper directives. That’s a good thing; Trump’s comments are repugnant, but they’re (mostly) not inherently dangerous, unless he actually learns how to give orders.
Giving orders would cut into his Fox News time, so it’s probably not going to happen any time soon.
As I see it, the greater problem is this:
How the hell did we even get here?
Perhaps nothing highlights Trump’s crusade against his own intelligence agency better than his absolutely disastrous interview with George Stephanopoulos.
President Trump: Okay, let’s put yourself in a position: you’re a congressman, somebody comes up and says, “Hey I have information on your opponent.” Do you call the FBI?
Stephanopoulos: If it’s coming from Russia you do.
President Trump: You don’t– I’ll tell you what. I’ve seen a lot of things over my life. I don’t think in my whole life I’ve ever called the FBI. In my whole life. I don’t–you don’t call the FBI. You throw somebody out of your office, you do whatever you do—
Stephanopoulos: Al Gore got a stolen briefing book. He called the FBI.
President Trump: Well, that’s different. A stolen briefing book. This isn’t– this is somebody who said, “We have information on your opponent.” Oh, let me call the FBI. Give me a break, life doesn’t work that way.
Stephanopoulos: The FBI Director says that’s what should happen.
President Trump: The FBI Director is wrong. Because, frankly, it doesn’t happen like that in life. Now, maybe it will start happening. Maybe today you think differently. But two or three years ago, if somebody comes into your office with oppo research– they call it oppo research–with information that might be good or bad or something, but good for you, bad for your opponent, you don’t call the FBI. I would guarantee you that 90 percent, could be 100 percent, of the congressmen or the senators over there, have had meetings–if they didn’t they probably wouldn’t be elected– on negative information about their opponent. They don’t–
Stephanopoulos: From foreign countries?
President Trump: Possibly. Possibly. But they don’t call the FBI. You don’t call the FBI every time you hear something that maybe–now, you see the people. The meeting, it also sounds to me–I don’t know anything about that meeting–but it sounds to me like it was a big nothing. That meeting was a big nothing.
Stephanopoulos: Your campaign this time around, if foreigners, if Russia, if China, if someone else offers you information on opponents, should they accept it or should they call the FBI?
President Trump: I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen, there’s nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, “we have information on your opponent.” Oh, I think I’d want to hear it.
Stephanopoulos: You want that kind of interference in our elections?
President Trump: It’s not an interference, they have information. I think I’d take it. If I thought there was something wrong, I’d go maybe to the FBI. If I thought there was something wrong. But when somebody comes up with oppo research, right, they come up with oppo research. Oh, let’s call the FBI. The FBI doesn’t have enough agents to take care of it, but you go and talk honestly to congressmen, they all do it, they always have. And that’s the way it is. It’s called oppo research.
Stephanopoulos: Mr. President. Thank you.
So yeah, that’s the President of the United States saying he’d take information from a hostile foreign power if it helped him win the election, and that the FBI director he appointed is wrong for disagreeing with him. He’s since walked that comment back, and – in typical Trump fashion- walked back the walk-back.
It’s difficult for me to understand why the GOP is standing beside this maniac, and why the country as a whole is so divided on how big of an issue this is.
Spoiler alert: it’s a really, really, REALLY big issue. In any other time, with any other President, those comments would have been tantamount to treason, because they ARE tantamount to treason.
Then it got even worse.
Trump and Putin Share a Chuckle
A couple of chuckles, actually.
During a press availability before one of the meetings, a reporter asked Trump, “Mr. President, will you tell Mr. Putin not to meddle in the election?”
Trump gave her that stupid Trump look, turned to Putin and said, with a huge smirk on his face and a fake-finger-wag, “Don’t meddle in the election, Vladimir, don’t meddle in the election.” Putin smirked too and the press were ushered out of the room.
In the same meeting, Trump said, “Get rid of them. Fake news is a great term, isn’t it? You don’t have this problem in Russia, but we do.”
Putin responded, “We also have. It’s the same.”
As if it was necessary to point out, Russia doesn’t have this problem because they execute journalists. Trump seems to be totally on board with that behavior, too:
At the summit, Trump claimed “Nobody so far has pointed a finger at the future king of Saudi Arabia.” in regards to the Khashoggi murder, when in fact, his own intelligence agencies AND the UN have said MBS is directly to blame.
He shared a couple chuckles with MBS, too, and started off his public comments by saying that the crown prince has done a “spectacular job” and was a “great friend of him.” He also complimented MBS on what he’s done for women.
This of course, ignores the fact that MBS has women who demand more rights arrested, tortured and threatened with rape. Then again, knowing Trump’s background, maybe it doesn’t. You can’t make this shit up, folks, but it would be great if he could praise any of our *real* allies this way.
