President Donald Trump is scheduled to receive his intelligence briefing Monday – the first in almost three weeks, despite having authorized the highly-controversial assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani over the holidays.
Trump increasingly has been ignoring his intelligence briefings – which in prior administrations for decades were known as the “President’s Daily Brief.” This White House long ago dropped the “daily” function.
During the month of December President Trump was scheduled to receive only four intelligence briefings, according to his official calendar.
He was pilloried early in his tenure for not paying attention during his daily intelligence briefings, as his National Security Advisors and other top intel community members were forced to find ways to keep the Commander-in-Chief sufficiently engaged. Ultimately, few words and lots of colorful pictures became the solution.
In its never-ending attempt to protect the president the White House switched the schedule of the president’s daily intelligence briefings to just “intelligence briefings,” and scheduled them less frequently.
“The President’s Daily Brief (PDB) is a daily summary of high-level, all-source information and analysis on national security issues produced for the president and key cabinet members and advisers,” the Intelligence Community’s official U.S. government’s website says, noting it has been delivered in some form since 1946.
But once again Trump is neglecting to get those briefings.
A review of President Trump’s official schedule shows in November, Trump – who has made ample time for campaign re-election rallies and tweetstorms a-plenty – had just five intelligence briefings scheduled. It’s unknown if he actually received them.
He did manage that month to post 857 tweets, visit 12 states for campaign rallies, hold three fundraisers, stay at a Trump property 12 times, and golf three times.
Trump had nine intelligence briefings scheduled in October, but just six in September.
One month after being elected Trump told reporters he did not see the need for daily intel briefings. “I’m like, a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years,” he said.