President Donald Trump reportedly was furious when news broke this week that his top intelligence officials – in open Senate testimony, aired live and uninterrupted on C-SPAN – all disputed his claims and rebuffed his policies on worldwide threats from North Korea, Iran, ISIS, and other bad actors.
They told the Senate that ISIS has not been defeated, despite the President’s claims to the contrary. They told the Senate that North Korea is still planning to make nuclear bombs and missiles that could destroy the U.S., despite the President’s claims to the contrary. And they told the Senate that Iran is not in violation of the joint agreement (JCPA, aka the Iran Deal), despite the President’s claims to the contrary.
Trump held a rare second “daily” Intelligence briefing Thursday afternoon. Rare because it was his second this week, and the second two days in a row, and rare because he only has about seven or eight a month nowadays.
The President has now assured Americans that he’s straightened them out – or, more specifically, they have straightened him out. Trump tweeted that they told him their live and uninterrupted Senate testimony was taken out of context, “mischaracterized” by the media. It was a “false narrative” and “distorted press.”
Of course, that’s totally false. They may have told him that, but they would have been lying.
Either Trump is, or his top intelligence officials are.
And either way, it’s the American people who are caught in the middle, and in harm’s way.
UPDATE: 5:07 PM ET –
Minutes after Trump’s tweets, C-SPAN posted these tweets, clearly in response: