Trump skeptical of using foreign spies to collect intel on hostile countries, sources say

[demmiblue]

Source: CNN

(CNN)President Donald Trump has privately and repeatedly expressed opposition to the use of foreign intelligence from covert sources, including overseas spies who provide the US government with crucial information about hostile countries, according to multiple senior officials who served under Trump.

Trump has privately said that foreign spies can damage relations with their host countries and undermine his personal relationships with their leaders, the sources said. The President "believes we shouldn't be doing that to each other," one former Trump administration official told CNN.

In addition to his fear such foreign intelligence sources will damage his relationship with foreign leaders, Trump has expressed doubts about the credibility of the information they provide. Another former senior intelligence official told CNN that Trump "believes they're people who are selling out their country."

Even in public, Trump has looked down on these foreign assets, as they are known in the intelligence community. Responding to reports that the CIA recruited Kim Jong Un's brother as a spy, Trump said he "wouldn't let that happen under my auspices."

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/10/politics/donald-trump-foreign-spies-skeptical/index.html?utm_source=twCNNp&utm_medium=social&utm_term=image&utm_content=2019-09-10T13%3A02%3A07

[Iliyah]

1. t-rump, pence and the rest need to go away now!

[olegramps]

12. As a prized Russian asset, it is no surprise that he objects to any threat to Putin.

It is very simple he is a want-a-be authoritarian who covets the power of the Russian, Chinese and Korean dictators. He has increasingly shown favor to the emerging dictatorships in Turkey, Hungry and Poland. While he attacks our traditional allies, his silence regarding the emergence of authoritarian leaders is highly instructive. If he loses the upcoming election, I will be anxious to see what will be his reaction. I don't see him going quietly back to bilking the gullible and running confidence games. He has had a taste of real power and he has handled badly. As Lincoln remarked if you what to test a man's character, give him power.

[madaboutharry]

2. I'm not an expert,

but I would think that foreign intelligence is where the best intell comes from.

More evidence that Trump knows nothing.

[FakeNoose]

5. It's more sinister than that

I agree that Chump is ignorant about how this thing works. But if it weren't for our Allies' sharing their info we wouldn't have even known about his collusion with Putin during the campaign. We routinely share (or used to anyway) our info with our Allies and it works both ways. It's something Chump has no control over, and it will eventually do him in.

[pangaia]

7. i suspect it is not his plan, and is intended to help do us in....

[Docreed2003]

3. Ugh this moron

Either this guy is the worlds biggest idiot...or he's complicit in some really shady shit...or both...🧐...hmm, both it is

[real Cannabis calm]

24. Trump is guilty of "shady shit" in foreign nations...

He's afraid reliable intelligence will reveal his crimes.

[42bambi]

26. That was my first thought as well. nt

[tanyev]

4. Probably because all the 'hostile' countries are his favorites.

Bet he'd have no problem with spies in France, Germany, or Canada.

[mpcamb]

6. Trump prefers those Russian-tainted sources instead.

[turbinetree]

8. Wells that makes sense for a traitor to say that after all, he has already given state secrets out

and who knows what else he has said behind closed doors, and also, we have this fine moment of him having a laugh in the white house.........................and then we can had North Korea and other despots he wants to rub elbows with...........................................


?itok=m0wLV6yI




November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough..........................

[bucolic_frolic]

9. 'ignorant of espionage going back to even before the time of the Roman Empire'

Link to tweet

[NCjack]

10. Putin told Trump that US spies are inept -- do more damage than good. nt

[amcgrath]

11. Any intelligence upsets Trump

His whole existence is based on denying evidence in favour of his own twisted view of the world.

At least he will have less to deal with than previous presidents, since it is guaranteed that even allies no longer share the way they once did. One of Trumps first acts as president was to run to Putin and give them a bunch of secret intel that Israel had shared.

Foreign agencies already took it for granted that Trump is a moron, a crook and deeply compromised. Running to Putin would just have cemented that view. Unfortunately inside most agencies, opinions on other countries last for decades.

America has shown itself to be a risk, not only because of an unstable president, but from the fact that a feeble corporate democrat party cannot be relied on to perform its role of providing checks and balances.

[TreasonousBastard]

13. Of course he is-- the point of foreign spies is to get intel on us...

and it's only Trump who can sell out his country.

[RockRaven]

14. This is SPIN to justify his burning of a CIA asset in the Oval Office meeting with the Russians

It is no accident that this story appears now -- if we weren't going to use that assent's info anyway because Trump doesn't trust that kind of spy, then it is not as big of a blunder to out him/her to Putin. Even if the remaining part of the article trashes Trump's stupidity for having that opinion, the timing and framing of the story is carrying water for Trump on the traitorous matter of outing a CIA asset to the hostile foreign power he/she was spying on.

[dalton99a]

15. +1

[Hotler]

20. Chump outed the asset.

And I bet the asset was extracted within 24-hrs. despite what the media says. Chump fucked up big time and things got really hot.

[BlueIdaho]

16. Spies? He's just going to ask his new pals

Vlad and Kim what they are doing...

[orangecrush]

17. Enough yet?

[targetpractice]

18. Typical narcissistic strategy...

Narcissists want/need to control all communication through them. They insist they be the single point of contact to "keep the story straight."

[Whiskeytide]

19. Wait... he thinks spies ...

... disrupt relations between countries? Really? Putin has an intelligence network all up in our collective ass right now, and trump himself is pretty obviously a spy for Russia. Yet he sucks up to Putin like a lap dog. Getting spied on seems to have had the opposite effect on PABOTUS.

[Ingersollman]

21. No

way in hell Emperor Fuckitupicus used the word "auspices". None.

[sinkingfeeling]

22. Didn't he once claim to have better intelligence than all of the

US intelligence agencies? And of course, he can just ask BFF Putin about his plans.

[Turbineguy]

23. Yeah

these foreigners have hard to pronounce names making it hard for trump to inform Putin who they are.

[struggle4progress]

25. "Vlad said he won't like me anymore if we spy on him"