Donald Trump undermines his staff and admits leaking intel to Russia
Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, divulged classified intelligence about so-called Islamic State to Russian officials in the Oval Office at a meeting last week. At least, that was the story published by the Washington Post on Monday night, which highlighted the sensitive nature of the information, the leaking of which could jeopardise a source of intelligence for the US mission against Islamic terrorism. It was also noted that, in relation to Syria, Russia and the US are adversaries not allies, and that the meeting came the day after Trump fired FBI director James Comey, for reasons which appear linked to the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russian in the 2016 election.
This is a serious – potentially illegal – breach of protocol that could literally put lives at risk. It’s a shocking allegation for a newspaper to make, which is why the Washington Post was careful to stress that the reports came from multiple former and current officials.
But they needn’t have bothered, because today, Trump himself admitted it. In fact, he boasted about it on Twitter, saying:
As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
…to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
Trump’s logic seems to be that he wanted to talk about the intel, and as president he can do what he likes. Which may be true (the original Washington Post article notes that the president has the power to declassify most information if he chooses). Except that White House officials and Trump surrogates had spent the fifteen hours after the story ran desperately denying it.
White House sources repeatedly claimed that only “shared concerns about terrorism” were discussed. General H.R. McMaster (Trump’s second national security advisor who was appointed after the disgraced Michael Flynn was forced to resign) called the story “false” and gave a statement saying: “At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed, and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly.” McMaster, who had been present at the meeting with the Russian ambassador and foreign minister, appeared to be denying allegations that had not even been made (the Washington Post article does not mention Trump revealing sources or methods). Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and deputy national security advisor Dina Powell also denied the story.
How embarrassing for them, then, that Trump has today trampled all over his White House’s hyper-active cleanup operation and publicly admitted he shared the information, at the same time tacitly revealing that his staff either don’t have the facts, of are happy to flat-out lie for him.
If you’re getting a sense of deja vu, it’s understandable. This is exactly what we saw last week, after Trump fired Comey. Originally, the rationale for the FBI director’s dismissal was the recommendations from the Justice Department about his handling of the Hillary Clinton e-mail case – a line parroted excessively by the Trump team for a full 48-hours. Then Trump did a live TV interview in which he casually announced he had been planning to fire Comey anyway, regardless of what the Justice Department said. Again, days of officials and surrogates scrambling to defend the president, only for the president to directly contradict them and make the original story ten times worse.
Is Trump so convinced of his own superiority that he doesn’t care at all about what he says? Does he enjoy stealing headlines so much that he will stay anything to shock the press, even if it brings down his own administration? Or is it just, as David Waywell suggests, that he is simply stupid?
David Brooks’ latest column for the New York Times was written before Trump sabotaged his staff with a childish defence of his actions. Nonetheless, Brooks’ theory that the president has the emotional intelligence of a seven-year-old child goes some way to explaining today’s developments. He writes:
“Which brings us to the reports that Trump betrayed an intelligence source and leaked secrets to his Russian visitors. From all we know so far, Trump didn’t do it because he is a Russian agent, or for any malevolent intent. He did it because he is sloppy, because he lacks all impulse control, and above all because he is a 7-year-old boy desperate for the approval of those he admires.”
In exactly the same way, the boy-president needed the world to approve of what he did, so he took to Twitter to justify himself, heedless as to how that might put his very administration at risk.
Who knows what he’ll admit to next?