This week, former CIA director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave “smart boy” Donnie Boy a harsh dose of reality:
“If we endure another attack and the intelligence officials had indications or information regarding that attack and the president did not want to listen to that, for whatever reason, the responsibility for that attack would fall on the president.”
It’s an appropriate response to this overgrown tyrant who brags that he’s such a “smart guy” and doesn’t think he needs to hear daily security briefings. This should be alarming to anyone who is paying attention, but Panetta – who knows a few things about national security – is particularly concerned.
“I’ve seen presidents who have asked questions about whether that intelligence is verifiable, what are the sources for that intelligence, but I have never seen a president who said, ‘I don’t want that stuff.’”
Every morning since Truman took over in the final months of World War II, it has been standard procedure for the President of the U.S. to receive a daily briefing from his top advisers and officials. This also applies to the President-elect.
It just makes sense that whoever is getting ready to move into the Oval Office be fully prepared for the job and the world he will be dealing with. Given that, one would think that Trump would be in on these daily briefings. But one would be wrong
Given the arrogant, egotistical child Donald Trump is, it should come as no surprise that he has been blowing them off. His feeling on the subject is that “I get it when I need it.” He considers those daily briefings to be a waste of his time because they’re “repetitive.” Instead, he’s more than willing to have his generals and the Vice President deal with those boring old details.
During an interview on Faux News last weekend, Donnie-boy said,
“You know, I’m, like, a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day. But I do say, if something should change, let us know.”
It’s a fundamental difference between running a business and running a country that he completely fails to grasp – namely, in the world of geo-politics, conditions can change in an instant.
Needless to say, many were shocked and appalled by Trump’s cavalier attitude. But, just as it was with Mad King George W, Donnie-boy seems to be able to do no wrong in the eyes of his fellow right-wingers.
One apologist, former CIA official Andrew Liepman, has briefed Presidents in the past. He says that the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) is an “important factor in the relationship” between the Executive and the intelligence community, but adds that “it’s not the only factor.” Liepman went on to say, “It’s a mistake to say unless the president takes the PDB every day he’s not prepared to govern. That’s oversimplifying it.”
All of this is a powerful indication that Trump is not only unprepared and unwilling to govern. If he isn’t going to take it seriously and listen to his security advisers closely – even if they do provide seemingly redundant intelligence day after day – why did he even want the job in the first place?
The answer to that is patently obvious. Just take a look at all the free passes an emboldened right-wing GOP is already giving him as well as the unqualified cronies with whom he is surrounding himself.
It looks like Grover Norquist and his ilk will finally get their fondest wish. As a result, millions of Americans will suffer and some of them may very well die in another 9/11 while Emperor Donald fiddles away in his palace on Pennsylvania Avenue.
