One of the cornerstones of Donald Trump’s claims to “success” during his time in the White House is his tendency to declare victory regardless of the outcome of whatever he’s talking about. It started literally on day one, when he claimed that his inauguration crowd was the largest in history, despite incalculable numbers of photos proving otherwise.
It gets a little more problematic, however, when he claims victory on something that’s actually meaningful. It could be that no one except his base cares about inauguration crowds, but when the President goes on Twitter to suggest that ISIS has been defeated, or that Iran has violated the terms of an agreement he never liked, or that he has successfully disarmed a nuclear North Korea, it can get quite a bit more complicated.
That’s where the intelligence community comes in. Trump has somewhat harmed the reputation of our nation’s intelligence gathering sources, not to mention the harm he’s done to the Pentagon by issuing orders he claims he coordinated with “his” generals — but which come as a complete surprise to those in the Department of Defense.
In fact, Trump’s own hand-picked Director of National Intelligence — the head of all sixteen of America’s intel agencies — told Congress that President Trump was incorrect on ISIS, Iran, and North Korea. A trifecta of foreign policy buffoonery. The DNI, Dan Coats, is no natural foe of the President — he’s a long-time Republican member of Congress, serving in both chambers before his appointment to the position.
Coats and the chiefs of all the intelligence agencies under his purview compiled a “Worldwide Threat Assessment,” a report to Congress that details exactly what we’re facing and how soon. In it, they directly contradict many of the things that Trump has crowed about on his Twitter feed — namely, that ISIS “still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria,” that North Korea “is unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons and production capability,” and that they “do not believe Iran is currently undertaking the key activities we judge necessary to produce a nuclear device.”
So, pretty much the opposite of everything Trump has said publicly.
It’s not the first time Trump has been undercut by those who understand both the American government and the world better than he does. It certainly won’t be the last.
Featured image via screen capture
