National Security

Intelligence Officials Are Concerned About Trump’s Belligerence

Written by SK Ashby

No, you're not the only ones troubled by despot-elect Donald Trump's decision to turn down intelligence briefings because he's too smart for them.

Members of the intelligence community are also rightfully alarmed that the incoming president doesn't seem to give a damn what they say about anything, particularly his boast that he's too smart for their briefings and his continued denial that Russia helped him win.

The comment, like others that Trump made during the campaign, "is contrary to all that is sacred to national security professionals who work day and night to protect this country," a U.S. intelligence official told NBC News.

The official called it "concerning" that the president-elect has chosen to "impugn the integrity of U.S. intelligence officials" by disputing professional intelligence judgments as false or politically partisan.

We've come an awfully long way from a time when Republicans viciously attacked anyone who dared to question the integrity of people responsible for protecting the nation.

The incoming Trump regime is openly hostile to anyone who sincerely believes in protecting the nation from foreign and domestic threats. Trump and his allies appear to be at war with our own intelligence community and he hasn't even been sworn in yet.

But we can't necessarily say this started with him. Republicans have spent the last couple years publicly claiming our security agencies and the Obama administration were doing very little to stop ISIS while ISIS was actually crumbling. Some Republicans even accused the Justice Department under Eric Holder of being compromised by the Muslim Brotherhood. I'm also reminded of the exclusively-GOP reaction to Operation Jade Helm which, in case you forgot, was suppose to be a secret Pentagon plot to overthrow the state government of Texas by tunneling under local Wal-Marts.