Commentator Doug Wead’s new book Inside Trump’s White House: The Real Story of His Presidency claims that top CIA employees did not like how “President Barack Obama’s administration micromanaged intelligence matters” and showed too much concern “with political correctness.”
From Fox News:
Wead cites an unnamed White House source who claims CIA officials leveled complaints against the Obama administration during a meeting with then-CIA director Mike Pompeo.”They met with the agency’s top five staff members. Someone from the White House asked about the major differences between the Trump administration and that of its predecessor,” Wead wrote. “Was there something the Trump folks could be doing better? One answer given was that in the last administration, everything was being run from the White House.The president’s staff was very operationally involved. If the CIA wanted to buy furniture in one of its foreign stations, it might require the White House to sign off on the purchase.”
The employees also complained about Obama’s “nonstop PC [political correctness] meetings” at the White House.
A meeting would happen every week, but at the end, the administration would tell the intelligence officials to meet with them “again in two weeks.”
This meant “[N]othing was ever resolved” nor was anything “ever good enough.”
On the other hand, Trump wants to give the intelligence community “more freedom” and the ability “to let them make choices.” The only time his administration steps in is when “they’re not making those decisions themselves.”
Trump has made it known he cannot stand political correctness. He has appointed people who agree with his viewpoint:
“We have to straighten out our country, we have to make our country great again, and we need energy and enthusiasm,” he said back in 2015. “And this political correctness is just absolutely killing us as a country. You can’t say anything. Anything you say today, they’ll find a reason why it’s not good.”The Trump administration has embraced that sentiment, with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson saying last month, “I think this whole concept of political correctness — you can say this, you can’t say that, you can’t repeat what someone said — is total foolishness, and it’s going to destroy our nation.”
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