Former CIA Deputy Director: Trump Would Be a "Hard Brief"

[deminks]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/cia-official-trump-intelligence-hard-brief

The veteran CIA official who once provided intelligence briefings to presidential candidates—including Gov. George W. Bush in 2000 and Sen. John Kerry in 2004—says briefing Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, could be rather difficult.

"It's an extraordinary year and Trump doesn't fit any mold at all," John McLaughlin, the former deputy CIA director who served as acting head of the agency in 2004, tells Mother Jones. "I think he'd be a hard brief."

To McLaughlin, Trump looks like an inflexible candidate who might not take well to information that contradicts or undercuts his own positions. "As an intelligence briefer, you'd probably be telling him a fair number of things that are at odds with his stated views," he notes. "And then you would find out how well he absorbs discordant information...Trump's public statements don't suggest that he's someone who easily deals with things that strongly disagree with his view."

Other intelligence officials have expressed similar concerns since Trump became the all-but-certain GOP standard-bearer this week. "Given that [Trump's] public persona seems to reflect a lack of understanding or care about global issues, how do you arrange these presentations to learn what are the true depths of his understanding?" former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden told the Washington Post. There's also the possibility that Trump will blurt out classified information on the campaign trail. McLaughlin says candidates—and any aides they may want to bring into intelligence briefings—aren't required to obtain security clearance to participate in the briefings. Lengthy and detailed background checks are the norm for government officials granted access to classified material.

The White House referred questions on the intelligence briefing process to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which carries out the briefings. That office has said it won't provide further details until after the nominating conventions in July. Candidates do not receive intelligence briefings until they are officially nominated.

(end snip)

The man who briefed W thinks Taco Don would be a hard brief. Fascinating.

[gratuitous]

1. Watch Trump

He'll be the five-year-old who chants, "I know something you don't know" four or five times, smiles conspiratorially, and then blabs everything. I don't think the DNI has to divulge classified information in the candidate briefings, but it will be . . . shall we say interesting? to see how Trump handles proprietary information, particularly information that doesn't comport with his views of the moment.

I foresee several months of Trump blurting out a lot of non-classified information that the United States would prefer not to be discussed generally and openly, getting it 100% wrong, and forcing DNI to issue a slew of public explanations, corrections, and clarifications. If Edward Snowden upset you, Donald Trump should bring on apoplexy.

[braddy]

2. Does Trump need those briefings? According to him he has the world's expert with him at

all times.

Asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who he talks with consistently about foreign policy, Trump responded, “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things."

"I know what I’m doing and I listen to a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people and at the appropriate time I’ll tell you who the people are," Trump said. “But my primary consultant is myself and I have a good instinct for this stuff."

[lagomorph777]

3. Yeah, probably best to skip the briefings if he'll just ignore them anyway.

Just give him a mirror.

I can just picture Trump on TV - "You'll never guess what the CIA just told me - we have the most awesome spy ring in Pyongyang; they're located at..."