CIA Director Destroyed Media Narrative on Trump and Intelligence Briefings
Has “fantastic” relationship with White House
During a forum Thursday, CIA Director Mike Pompeo debunked a prevalent myth about Trump’s engagement with intelligence briefings.
“How do you describe where the relationship is between the White House and the Intelligence Community?” Pompeo was asked. “It’s fantastic,” he replied to a room full of chuckles. “No, don’t laugh, I mean that.”
“I can only give you my observations,” said Pompeo.
“This morning at 10:30, I was in the Oval Office presenting the President his daily brief. I do it nearly every day. When I’m out of town my deputy is there, the team’s there, the Vice President is there almost every day when he’s in the country. They are voracious consumers of the product we’ve developed, they ask really hard questions — I think that’s a sign of a good relationship. I always remind people that when you stop talking, it’s not a good thing.”
“The relationship is in my sense fantastic (the word that I used) because the President is also completely prepared to hear things that run counter to the hypothesis.”
During the campaign, Trump famously said, “I get it [intel briefs] when I need it”, leading many to believe candidate Trump was disinterested in intel goings on.
Pompeo’s account signals a contrast between candidate Trump and President Trump.
A visual learner, it’s said Trump prefers briefings with a heavy dose of visual aids:
For a television performer, television appearances matter a lot. A recent Washington Post story recounted how, when Trump started getting intelligence briefings, his briefers were advised that he was “a visual and auditory learner”—in other words, that he should deal with as few words as possible and, instead, get “more graphics and pictures.” There’s no reason to doubt that, before approving the missile strike, Trump was affected by television images of wounded and dying children in the aftermath of a chemical-weapons attack, although that spark of empathy had been well hidden for months in his seeming indifference to the many images available of the catastrophic suffering in the region.
Regardless, if what Pompeo says is true, then that’s another media meme cast to the rubbish bin.
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Comments
I guess now that this myth has been proven wrong, the “Trump is going to start killing gays” will be next. Or am I dreaming?
You can bank on it.
Cue the media lies in 3, 2, 1…….
I worry that Pompeo is getting his information from a bunch of Obama holdovers.
I’m sorry, but what does this article mean?
On a Tuesday, members of this administration make statements which contradict each other. On Wednesday, the same officials “explain” the administration’s position and contradict their previous statements. On Friday the President weighs in and contradicts the rest of his administration. On Sunday, members of the administration go on the Sunday Morning talk circuit and contradict each other and the President. On Monday, the President clarifies the administration position and contradicts his statement from the previous Friday.
What gives? Is the intelligence changing that rapidly that the administration’s position has to be radically modified in the course of a week? Why is there such confusion among the members of the administration as to what the President’s goals and objectives are? Exactly WHO is steering the ship of state?
This administration is rapidly becoming a runaway truck rolling down the side of a mountain, in the area of foreign policy. Someone, hopefully the President, will grab the wheel, down shift and apply the breaks to slow this all down. In a room full of suspicious gunfighters, one moves slowly and keeps his hand away from his gun to minimize the possibility of an over reaction from others in the room. A single shot can precipitate a multiparty shoot out, as people react to what they perceive to be a threat.
Excellent mixed metaphors–the ship of state and a runaway truck. BTW, it’s brakes, not breaks.
That’s it? You complain about mixed metaphors and a typo? So much for critical thought. No wonder people have such a difficult time seeing the obvious downside to the current actions of this administration.
Example of critical thought:
“On a Tuesday, members of this administration make statements which contradict each other. On Wednesday, the same officials “explain” the administration’s position and contradict their previous statements. On Friday the President weighs in and contradicts the rest of his administration. On Sunday, members of the administration go on the Sunday Morning talk circuit and contradict each other and the President. On Monday, the President clarifies the administration position and contradicts his statement from the previous Friday.”
Looks like an example of complete and total bullshit to me.
It means exactly whatnot says, that that relationship between the shite house and the CIA is fantastic. It’s not rocket science as it’s right in front if you.
Mailman
The problem you have Mac is you want to believe the media meme of the administration being out of control.
Sadly for you real life ™, something Democrats havecno idea of, is very different to what the media is telling the willingly gullible idiots on the left.
Mailman
No, the problem is that the administration APPEARS to be out of control. Whether it is or not remains to be seen.
DJT has a good grasp of economics. His decisions in this area seem to track logically and consistently. But, when he gets into social and foreign affairs issues, he seems to become erratic.
In the social arena, he promised two things that he simply can not deliver. The first was to guarantee every woman in America six weeks of paid maternity leave. This not only places an unfair burden on the business community, but somebody has to pay for it. Then, of course, if you offer it to women, you have to offer it to men as well, just like the Family Leave Act. The second thing was to repeal and replace Obamacare while guaranteeing everyone healthcare insurance as good or better than they have now. Good luck with accomplishing that, without enacting government funded and controlled healthcare insurance.
Then we have the various spokespeople for the administration making contradictory statements on foreign policy issues. The President has to get these people to shut-up until they have their stories straight. A united, knowledgeable front has to be presented or there is chaos. And right now there is chaos. The Russians have no idea what Trump is going to do next, or for what reason. The same is true of China, and NK, all of which are nuclear powers. Then there is Iran, Pakistan [another nuclear power] and most of the rest of the world. If you are going to present yourself as being ready, willing and able to use force against others, then you have to be very clear under what circumstances you are going to use it. Otherwise, you run the very real risk of someone taking preemptive action to stop you from doing so. As noted, it is not clear what circumstances must prevail before the President will use military force against another nation. This makes a number of very heavily armed people very nervous. And nervous people are dangerous. Trump needs to get control of the adminsitraiton and it needs to be done now.
What a wild overreaction that is. His China engagement policy has started to pay off dividends. There seems to be a relationship between Xi and Trump. If he has to back off the currency comments to get a better trade deal or get them engaged more forcefully with NK, then so be it. Everything is a chip to be negotiated. Sec Tillerson’s meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov wound up being an unscheduled meeting with Putin. Tillerson artfully opened a area of cooperation that the two countries could pursue while still talking firmly.
His actions in Syria have drawn world praise. Even Merkel said she wanted a good relationship with the Trump administration. Once NATO agreed to Pres Trump’s comments about expanding the mission to include terrorism and getting more countries to share the load, the President quickly praised NATO (Jen Stoltenburg’s reward for listening). The MOAB bomb in Afghanistan essentially told fatboy in NK to mind his manners at the same time the Chinese start to lean on him as well.
Quietly Pres Trump told the Australian PM to shove it when it came to those Australian refugees he and Obama negotiated.
So Pres Trump has had an outstanding week on the world stage. Only someone who believed the lies of MSM would think otherwise.
We’ll have to see exactly how much China-US relations have changed over the next few months. So far, the Chinese have turn back a load of NK coal and said that they are going to buy coal from the US. This is hardly a significant reversal of Chinese policy. Moving 120,000 Chinese troops to the NK border was done simply to turn back refugees if the US attacks NK.
The meeting with Putin was necessary. The US is acting in a very irrational manner. And, the current actions of the President have brought it into direct conflict with Russia. Putin has to deal with his own political factions, some of which comprise an anti-American war party [sound familiar?]. Given the US attack on Syria, Putin could not have an official meeting with Tillerson, as internal politics would not allow it. So, it was an unscheduled private meeting. And, NO area of cooperation has been opened between the US and Russia.
Of course Europe is not bad things about Trump’s actions. Who do you think is going to be on the front lines if a war starts with Russia? European governments did not praise the attack on Syria to any meaningful extent. Without the US, there is no viable NATO force.
The use of the MOAB was simply for show. Recent reports claim a whopping 11 casualties from this strike. It did produce an impressive mushroom cloud for the cameras, though.
As for scaring NK, that can work two ways. It is as likely to produce a negative response form NK as it is to provoke a positive one. The NK regime is not composed of rational people. Fear is not the best motivator, especially where crazy people are concerned.
By the way, Trump reversed himself on the Australian refugees, remember? Claiming the US had to honor the agreement entered into by Obama, we’re now taking some of those refugees. The only thing that has not been decided is how many and which ones will be accepted by the US.
So, on the world stage, we have a President who is throwing weapons around for little or no reason in an effort to cow the rest of the world through fear. He has engaged in an act of wear against another sovereign nation without legal authority or justification. One which has further strained relations with a powerful nuclear state. He has engaged in a spectacular attack on a largely empty area which has resulted in a minimal amount of confirmed casualties and no evidence that the effectiveness of ISIS has been affected at all. He is rapidly rushing to a potential engagement with nuclear power, albeit a minor one, which is run by madmen. Add to that the fact that a public military clash between the US and NK could well have an adverse affect upon the long term goals of the Chinese, in the region, which could precipitate military action on their part. And the biggest worry for a President who was elected for his opposition to the Establishment, is that the Establishment is now singing his praises. Trump has NO allies in Washington for his stated agenda. The only power that he has comes from the Deplorables who voted for him. If he manages to alienate enough of them, he becomes totally ineffectual.
We’ll have to see just how good this week will be in the long run.
For those a little older than I am, wasn’t the coverage of Reagan pretty much the same? Reagan thought he was still making movies and Nancy was running the white house with her astrologer, from what I remember.
Go back a bit further; it’s obvious that McCarthy was right. The commies have taken over the media, the education system and the administrative state.
The derision of Ronald Reagan as a fool and a cowboy was pervasive. Then the wall came down.
All I remember of those years is the apocalyptic nuclear war that Ronnie Raygun got us into. And the glaciers from the new ice age, of course.
They didn’t have much of a problem when Obama was missing 60% of his PDAs because he wasn’t getting the Presidential eye boogers wiped out of his peepers until the crack of noon.
Doh…that would be “PDBs”
“Damn these
glassesmuscle relaxers”Obama be like “why should I go to PDBs? What do you expect me to do about it”?
Obama be like “why should I go to PDBs? What do you expect me to do about it”?
Actually Obama would send them back with corrections in the margins, because he knew so much more then the most intelligent person ,according to Valarie Sycophant
Correction (than the most , not then the most )
Ok at English ,miserable at typing , too lazy to proofread
Corrections such as “Russia is not an adversary – that is so 1980s! ISIS isn’t a threat to anyone – they are junior league, I’m a pro! Don’t you guys know anything? That’s why I hardly ever read your stuff…
Trump is a “visual and auditory” learner, as opposed to BHO who was a “lalalalala I can’t hear you” learner.
Pompeo hardly has any credibility on this.
I saw Mike Morrell tell Charlie Rose almost exactly the same thing two or three weeks ago. Morrell was Obama’s Acting CIA Director, adviser to HRC and almost certainly would have been her CIA Director had she won. So he has lots of contacts in the CIA who know what is happening.
He told Rose that Trump reads almost all of the daily briefings and listens to the presentations made by the briefers. He asks thoughtful, intelligent, pointed questions. The only difference between what Pompeo said and what Morrell said is that Morrell told Rose that Trump probably attends the in-person briefings about three days a week (but still reads the briefs). That’s probably not meant as a hard number but a way of saying he attends most of them.
It had a lot of credibility considering the source was once the Acting CIA Director under BHO who probably would be sitting in Pompeo’s seat if HRC had won.
If you want to watch the video I’m sure it is available on Charlie Rose’s site.