- Dec 12, 2000
- 25,504
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- 136
Dan Coats' biggest transgressions against Trump? Laughing in public upon first hearing about Trump's praise of Putin, and telling the truth to Congress about NK holding on to nukes. But hey, no cause for alarm, right!
https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-...nce-2ba4275d-7624-4f4b-9026-ee0d0606ce32.html
The state of play: Trump hasn't told our sources when he plans to make a move, but they say his discussions on the topic have been occurring for months — often unprompted — and the president has mentioned potential replacements since at least February. A source who spoke to Trump about Coats a week ago said the president gave them the impression that the move would happen "sooner rather than later."
A source with direct knowledge told me that Trump has privately said he thinks the Office of the Director of National Intelligence represents an unnecessary bureaucratic layer and that he would like to get rid of it.He has been told that eliminating the ODNI is not politically possible, but still would like to "downsize" the office, the source said.
A government source who has discussed the matter with Trump characterized the president's thinking this way: "It's time for a change. Dan's a great guy but the president doesn’t listen to him anymore."
What's next: One potential replacement Trump has mentioned to multiple sources is Fred Fleitz, who formerly served as chief of staff to national security adviser John Bolton.
Fleitz was previously a CIA analyst and a staff member of the House Intelligence Committee. He is currently the president of the Center for Security Policy.
...
FYI, Fleitz has a history of going after rank and file CIA analysts when they disagree with an intelligence narrative that Bolton wants to push.
He helped run the Center for Security Policy, started by Frank Gaffney, an anti-Muslim activist and conspiracy theorist. In his writings for the Center, Fleitz claimed that major American Muslim organizations and mosques were secretly working to advance a jihadist agenda, that such groups should not be trusted when they claim to "eschew violence" and that they should be "neutralized as political forces." The CSP has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, among a wide variety of other media and research organizations, for propagating conspiracy theories and Islamophobia, and described as a hate group, a label the organization disputes.
More recently, he was a Fox News talking head defending Trump's attacks on the intelligence community and Deep State, saying that intelligence analysts were undermining Trump's foreign policy by providing public intelligence briefings and testimony to Congress (lol wut?)
Basically...a real stand-up guy...
https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-...nce-2ba4275d-7624-4f4b-9026-ee0d0606ce32.html
The state of play: Trump hasn't told our sources when he plans to make a move, but they say his discussions on the topic have been occurring for months — often unprompted — and the president has mentioned potential replacements since at least February. A source who spoke to Trump about Coats a week ago said the president gave them the impression that the move would happen "sooner rather than later."
A source with direct knowledge told me that Trump has privately said he thinks the Office of the Director of National Intelligence represents an unnecessary bureaucratic layer and that he would like to get rid of it.He has been told that eliminating the ODNI is not politically possible, but still would like to "downsize" the office, the source said.
A government source who has discussed the matter with Trump characterized the president's thinking this way: "It's time for a change. Dan's a great guy but the president doesn’t listen to him anymore."
What's next: One potential replacement Trump has mentioned to multiple sources is Fred Fleitz, who formerly served as chief of staff to national security adviser John Bolton.
Fleitz was previously a CIA analyst and a staff member of the House Intelligence Committee. He is currently the president of the Center for Security Policy.
...
FYI, Fleitz has a history of going after rank and file CIA analysts when they disagree with an intelligence narrative that Bolton wants to push.
He helped run the Center for Security Policy, started by Frank Gaffney, an anti-Muslim activist and conspiracy theorist. In his writings for the Center, Fleitz claimed that major American Muslim organizations and mosques were secretly working to advance a jihadist agenda, that such groups should not be trusted when they claim to "eschew violence" and that they should be "neutralized as political forces." The CSP has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, among a wide variety of other media and research organizations, for propagating conspiracy theories and Islamophobia, and described as a hate group, a label the organization disputes.
More recently, he was a Fox News talking head defending Trump's attacks on the intelligence community and Deep State, saying that intelligence analysts were undermining Trump's foreign policy by providing public intelligence briefings and testimony to Congress (lol wut?)
Basically...a real stand-up guy...