Trump Has Skipped Almost All of His Intelligence Briefings
www.thedailybeast.com
The president’s lax approach to national security has some intelligence officials alarmed.

Summary

Donald Trump has attended only 12 intelligence briefings in his first 100+ days of his second term, a steep decline from his already infrequent briefing schedule during his first presidency, POLITICO reports.

He began 2025 with just two in-person updates monthly, shifting to weekly in April.

Critics, including Sen. Mark Warner, say Trump’s disengagement endangers national security, as he also avoids reading detailed briefing materials.

His national security team is in turmoil, and recent cuts to CIA DEI programs have sparked fears of institutional regression and increased vulnerability to global threats.

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
    1293·
    12 days ago

    Unironically probably for the best, anything top secret he would learn in those meetings would be in the hands of his autocratic handlers before the meeting was concluded.

    • SippyCup@feddit.nlEnglish
      34·
      12 days ago

      He’s too demented to understand them anyway. He wouldn’t care even if he could.

    • Stovetop@lemmy.world
      21·
      12 days ago

      That’s optimistic. The handlers are probably still at (or even orchestrating) the briefings.

    • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      12 days ago

      Honestly, at this point I’d be willing to bet that those officials who actually still give half a shit about national security don’t give Trump anything that isn’t essentially public information already. Or at the very least, largely harmless if it does become public. It’s not like Trump would know or care about the difference.

      Remember that multiple sources have said that during his first term, the Presidential Daily Briefings were largely little more than fluff pieces with pretty pictures, easy to understand words, and random references to him just to keep his attention, much like trying to keep a 3 year old occupied with a coloring book and a handful of crayons.

    • Dagnet@lemmy.world
      81·
      12 days ago

      Not sure, he is probably getting his intelligence from Russia at this point

      • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        11 days ago

        his krasnov: briefing for the week, is ignore all other intelligence briefing from the us, and allies, and also shout “my putins talking points” once a while to make noise and distract the news.

    • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
      31·
      12 days ago

      Which really runs against the “Everything Trump does is actually Russia!” line that gets posted around here incessantly. There’s nothing Putin would want more than to have access to those briefings, but his useful idiot is too much of an idiot to be useful here. Trump is on Putin’s side, sure, but most of what he does, especially in this term, is the result of home-grown American authoritarianism, not orders from Russia.

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
        1·
        3 days ago

        Gabbard, a Russian stooge, is Director of National Intelligence. Putin doesn’t need to get Trump’s briefings.

        Trump’s not the only one taking orders from the Kremlin.

        Oops, didn’t read further downthread to @ysjet’s comment.

      • ysjet@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        11 days ago

        Why would Putin need Trump to pass that sort of thing along anymore? That’s literally Tulsi Gabbard’s job, passing along info the Putin.

        She was literally a known Russian spy even before the got confirmed.

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      13·
      12 days ago

      The sad part is that this likely isn’t even a meme. As time has progressed, there has been more and more evidence pointing to exactly this. He may be able to read on a basic first or second grade “sounding big words out” level, but there is a lot of evidence that he can’t actually read proficiently.

      • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        12 days ago

        Right before he got on stage and told everyone to inject bleach or shove a light bulb up your ass. That’s what he was able to understand when looking at this poster.

      • nuxi@lemmy.world
        4·
        12 days ago

        Far more likely is that he needs reading glasses but doesn’t like to be seen wearing them.

  • Civil_Liberty@lemm.ee
    181·
    12 days ago

    He doesn’t need to attend to pass on the important stuff to Vlad. Tulsi does that for him now.