Now Reading
Trump just trashed top intelligence ex-chiefs in attempt to excuse his tweeting classified info

Trump just trashed top intelligence ex-chiefs in attempt to excuse his tweeting classified info

After Donald Trump tweeted out a photo of a “catastrophic accident” at an Iranian missile launch test site yesterday, he was accused by many former intelligence officials of once again undermining U.S. intelligence agencies by casually disclosing information that could lead to our nation’s adversaries learning critical information about our intelligence gathering capabilities and methods.

Trump was responding to rumors that the explosion at Iran’s space center was somehow the work of American sabotage rather than a mere accident, and — while it was reassuring that Trump hadn’t launched an act of war without Congressional approval — his use of a photo that appeared to be taken by himself or a staffer of an image from his classified daily intelligence briefing ranked with his casual disclosure of intelligence secrets to the Russian ambassador shortly after he took office as one of the most reckless and foolish moves of his presidency and raised further questions about whether Trump was an actual Russian agent or merely a “useful idiot” as some people charitably describe him.

The president protested the uproar over his disclosure of the photo saying:

“We had a photo and I released it, which I have the absolute right to do,” as he told reporters while leaving for Camp David last night.

Trump failed to realize that no one was questioning his right as president to declassify whatever he decides to disclose but, instead, his critics were simply questioning the wisdom, or, more pointedly, the sanity of his judgment.

Still, the president took time from his golf game and whatever disaster planning he was overseeing for the arrival of Hurricane Dorian — a lesser priority for Trump now that forecasts predict a lower likelihood that it will score a direct hit on his Mar-a-Lago resort — to attack the former senior intelligence officials who had questioned the president’s ability to protect intelligence assets and methods and keep our nation safe.

Try to restrict your chortling after reading Trump’s claim that his presidency has led to America winning and gaining respect from other international leaders, particularly after his pitiful performance at the G-7 summit.

For the trio of former senior national security officials that he targets in his tweet — former Director of National Intelligence in the Obama administration James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey,  and former Obama CIA Director John Brennan — being called “dumb” and clueless by Trump is like being labeled contagious by Typhoid Mary.

Trump was especially angry with Clapper — whom he named first in his tweet — after the outspoken former intelligence official explained how America’s enemies were going to respond to the president’s unprecedented disclosure.

“You can bet every adversary is going to school on what’s been exposed,”  Clapper said in an email quoted by The New York Times. “I can’t see what the point was, other than to make fun of the Iranians.”

Nevertheless, Trump also saw fit to send one more tweet attacking his frequent critic James Comey who has resurfaced in the news again after the FBI’s Inspector General cleared him in any prosecutable offenses in its probe of Comey’s leak of internal FBI memos shortly after he was fired by the president for “this Russia thing.”

It was another ironically laughable tweet from the notoriously ethics-free Trump, one that does not reflect well on either the man he quoted or the newspaper he works for.

Trump’s entire Twitter fusillade today does prove the truth of one thing — that there is Donald Trump and there is intelligence and never the twain shall meet.

Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.

Original reporting by David E. Sanger and

Vinnie Longobardo
Managing Editor
Vinnie Longobardo is the Managing Editor of Occupy Democrats. He's a 35-year veteran of the TV, mobile & internet industries, specializing in start-ups and the international media business. His passions are politics, music, and art.

© 2022 Occupy Democrats. All Rights Reserved.

Scroll To Top