The authors and the intelligence officers go to great care to depict Trump as a rational, economics-focused leader. He is not. He feigns some higher level of economics and business insight and then does what he wants. Economics, trade, and negotiation have proven not to be his strong suits. Lying, manipulation, divisiveness, and the "art of the bully" have only selective need for intelligence. He's going to do what he wants and test every bound. You don't win over a skeptical Trump, you eventually get used by him.
4
Not only is our president not a reader- always a characteristic of the most disciplined minds- he isn't even curious enough to read intelligence reports based in part on information other Americans have risked their lives to obtain? Does anyone wonder why he doesn't want us to see his college transcripts or SAT scores?
4
This is the kind of willful ignorance that led to the 9/11 attacks.
4
This is pathetic, even though it is not surprising. I wonder if we have ever had a president with less intellect and less interest in a broad perspective of threats the country faces.
The tailoring of charts and other materials to Mr. Trump suggests a "student" who doesn't wish to learn or has a great deal of trouble doing so. Meanwhile, the country is hampered by his unwillingness and ineptitude.
6
How sad we have to give him information like you would holdout a treat to get a dog to obey a command.
2
"It's not the president's job to adapt to the P.D.B....It is the job of intelligence officers to adapt the P.D.B. to the president".
That quote from former C.I.A. officer and briefer.
It must have pained The Times to include that bit of information in an article about Trump. At least it was buried in the last paragraph. No danger of the choir reading past the headlines.
@Albert Edmud Maybe the intelligence community could put their reports into a comic book form.
One of the most touching pieces from the NYT was by Michael D. Shear called "Obama After Dark: The Precious Hours Alone".
In it, he describes the volumes of intelligence and daily briefings Obama consumed until 1 AM. Reading countless briefs, articles, and preparing for speeches, decisions and responses. Our President was getting 5 hours of sleep per night. This was all after a daily dinner with his wife and daughters.
It brought me to tears, as it expressed his dedication, commitment and profound intelligence in honoring his duties of the office and his family. I was comforted and felt safe under his leadership.
Mr Trump may very well have a learning disability which would explain his aversion to reading. If so, he certainly has plenty of staff that could easily read to him or convey thorough daily reports.
But that would require humility, shutting off the TV, decreasing his golf trips and prioritizing the safety of the American people.
6
What a state of affairs! It is becoming clearer every day that the only thing that gets Donald Trump`s attention is $$$. That is why intelligence officials have come to understand that the only way to get his attention in any way is to put it into dollars and cents. It is the ONLY thing he really understands. As if more proof were needed Trump has no clue what he is dealing with; or who. Perhaps that is why he can only really deal with cutthroat dictators. They don`t. have to deal with annoying and frustrating obstacles such as a free press; or worse a Democratic Congress to deal with. Oh Bother. He just can`t. deal with the concept that some things are not for sale. Like national security. Of course that has been proven that he cares little for that; unless it comes to his useless idiot wall. I pity those poor souls that have to somehow penetrate that thick brick in his head.
3
We have a lazy, C- intellect in the White House who relies on Cliff Notes instead of someone who reads and fully comprehends the Presidential Daily Brief. What could possibly go wrong?
5
"“The problem,” Mr. King said, “is the message sent to agencies: ‘Don’t tell me information I don’t want to hear.’”"
Donald Trump doesn't want to hear much unless the information can be used to build him up, justify his views, or give him the ammunition he needs to promote policies that may ultimately harm the US.
A leader who can't change his mind, expand his perspectives, or digest new theories based on hard-core evidence is a dangerous one, in my book.
Over the decades Trump developed opinions not based on truth, but prejudices. Moreover, his over-confidence in his own thinking makes him short-sighted and arrogant.
That this man holds the reins of power still manages to send shivers down my spine, no matter how long he's been in Washington.
My biggest surprise is that we haven't yet had a real catastrophe because of his ingrained prejudices.
But the larger problem for the American people is a president who wants to corroborate, not correct, a perspective that's imply not based on facts.
I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, and suspect I'm not alone.
82
Has there ever before been a *president* as needy and fragile as trump? It is exhausting to read about the accommodations that have to be made to keep him from having a meltdown, so I can only imagine what it must be like to work for him. 2020 cannot come soon enough - I hope the American electorate does the right thing this time.
47
The American public did the right thing in 2016. Remember, Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million. He’s president only because of the distribution of the votes across the states.
15
@Richard Rettberg
In that case, more states must do the right thing and give all Electoral College votes to the winner overall. That would prevent another Trump--I hope.
4
@Barbara...So much for the Rule of Law, Barb. After all, if y'all can't win lawfully, just steal the election.
The article clearly demonstrates the extreme limitations of Trump’s world view. He sees the world only in terms of “who is winning” and within that narrow world view, he further simplifies it into terms of economics. He cannot understand that Germany has an interest in continuing to work with a variety of countries, even those for whom it may have some doubts. The gas pipeline, for example, does not eliminate the doubts about Russia.
While the article clearly discusses that all presidents did focus their daily briefings to their interests, it also clearly demonstrated how other presidents still understood the broader picture, I also worry that this is the first modern president that publicly defies and criticizes his own intelligence apparatus.
The overall view, in my opinion, is that we have a close minded ignorant man sitting on the highest elected seat in our country making decisions with only partial information because he does not want the whole picture.
23
@Rebecca R...Would that "intelligence apparatus" be the same one that swore to high heaven that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction and that he would use them? Or, are you thinking of another "intelligence apparatus"?
So what happens when an outrage, like the Saudi's murder of Khashoggi and their suppression and likely torture of an American citizen and other dissidents can't be translated into economic terms? When dealing with an ego-driven would-be autocrat who sees things from a transactional viewpoint, all sense of morality is gone.
32
@LHW
Re the Saudis - gotta make that airplane deal. That's all that counts.
6
@LHW, Ah, but Trump can (and does) translate Khashoggi's murder (and everything else) into economic turns: Trump thinks about it and realizes that Khashoggi's death costs him nothing but Prince Mohammad bin Salman can finance Trump's next 10 hotel deals.
4
In the world today economic hegemony-not military might per se- is where power really lies. The Chinese have known this- and acted accordingly for, well, ever.
If you look closely, Trump has a knack of putting a finger on a real issue but has no earthly clue what to really do about it.
2
"The president has publicly clashed with intelligence briefers over their assessments of the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea. He has also privately complained after national security briefings that, “My generals don’t understand business,” according to a former administration official." OK, in this statement we can see the chasm that needs to be bridged. We might as well say my auto mechanic dosn't know about heart surgery. We have two different goals- make as much money as possible or avoid nuclear war. I would think on the scale of importance - since one can always make more money but its very tough to rise from the asheds of a nuclear conflict - the advisors should have a serious come to Jesus talk with the great non- knowing one.
6
@lastcard jb...So, are you claiming that it's the Generals who are negotiating with Kim Jung-Un to denuclearize the North Korea? Thanks for the clarification.
YES BUT ... isn't the business of America business? A fair-minded inference being, it transcends mere intelligence?
Meaning further, it's PT with the correct - and moral - take on this? As in so many other areas, is he not more knowledgeable than the so-called experts, as he has often proclaimed?
Is the adage no longer true that experts should be on tap but not on top?
Sheesh!
1
What a waste of time! It appears that Trump’s understanding of economics is limited at best. After all, he apparently thinks that tariffs applied to imports are paid by the exporter or the exporting country. Of course tariffs are paid by the importer, and the costs are passed on to the final consumer of those goods. In other words, us. To put it another way, tariffs are a tax paid for by Americans, not foreigners. It is probably beyond his comprehension that a second order effect of tariffs is to build inflation into our economy. I really wonder how he could have passed his courses at Wharton....
5
While Trump may have too little faith in the analysis provided by the leaders of US intel services and the sometimes hidden agendas behind it, the NYT - history has shown, has demonstrated far too much. Often acting as an almost unedited stenography service for the messages the intel community seek to get out. Hence the paper's "official sources say" nickname. Case in point. The Steele Report which almost everyone with any credibility has now disowned and distanced themselves from and the core accusations of espionage against Huawei which the former head of Britain's signals intelligence agency (GCHQ) which actually knows Huawei and their technology and businesses practices far better than US intel (see coverage in UK) publicly dismissed as "nonsense." Beyond that UK intel issued an official report saying Huawei could be used in British telecom networks. This information tended to be buried in the US media when it came out a few weeks ago. Anyone who thinks intelligence reports -in most cases - are anything but an agency's best guess of what is happening heavily influenced by that organization's goals, leaders and politics through the editing, flagging and promotion process (eg is this important or not) and beyond don't understand the field.
3
“In a democracy, people get the leaders they deserve.” no better no less.
2
This President needs more than an intelligence "briefing" - an Intelligence Transplant would be more in keeping with his needs.
9
It would seem most did not read past the title and first paragraph. "After his election, President Bill Clinton told his briefers that he wanted more economic information. And during the recession caused by the 2008 financial crisis, President Barack Obama had an economic intelligence briefing created to supplement the daily intelligence briefing."
Or, are the NYTimes and the 'Intelligence' agencies wanting a daily vs. bi-weekly meeting? Having worked in DC, I can promise you that holding any daily meeting becomes a waste of time - repetitive and mundane unless something really new is to be discussed. But in my experience, the latter drives a 'special' meeting outside the daily regurgitation.
Not saying that intelligence is a waste of time and should not be adhered to, but setting up anything daily without new information or a new agenda is how many in DC 'work' their days.
@Ma, If there is intel that Russia is about to invade Estonia, I don't think it would be wise to wait until the next bi-weekly meeting. Similarly if there is intel about a plot bu ISIS to blow up a government building in the USA. Daily briefings seems to befit information that needs to be acted on quickly.
1
If you don't know what questions to ask, you will seldom get useful answers.
7
And they have to present intelligence to him in cartoon format to make him understand....
10
Wait.
How soon folks forget about the 44th??
He is on record as saying he knew more on intelligence matter than all agencies combined - and this was in his first term. And remember, he had not even completed first term of his Senate stint.
And then, we had Mr Ben Rhodes - who was famous for saying the reporters are a bunch of patsy's - especially the millennials - who just like to be spoon fed.
This is yet another article that shows incredible either fascination with this POTUS or contempt of his working style.
Then again, remember that famous P. D. B. right after 9/11 that the commission wanted to get hold of and president Bush claimed executuve privilege.
All kinds of rumors, gossip, innuendos that the president had been specifically warned of the type of attack and even the time of attack.
As it turned out it was just a vague statement of "Al Quaeda determined to strike ...etc."
Or for that matter, Mr Hersch to this day claims that Osama was outed by a walk in and not this highly exhaustive intelligence.
And reading history, I tend to believe Me Hersch.
I wish after 2 years of this POTUS - folks would say - hey, he has a different style - neither good or bad.
2
Trump is God, at least in his own dangerously narcissistic mind. He knows all and does all...and the GOP now worships at his feet. They are drinking his brand of coolaid without reading the contents label and its warnings.
Trump is a puppet, at least in Putin's mind, his KGB trained mind...and the GOP is blind to the puppet strings due to the coolaid.
The rest of us seem to do nothing but wring our hands and shake our heads in disbelief.
What is it going to take to change this current reality? I fear it may take more than rhetoric and ballot boxes the longer this pathetic show goes on. Our American Dream is at grave risk. And Putin loves it.
3
This is an example of our grossly errant thinking:
"If Trump tailors [intelligence] to his needs, that is fine and his prerogative...However, if he suppresses intelligence through that tailoring, that is not helpful. He is no longer making informed decisions because he is making decisions based on information he could have had but didn’t have.” Tailor can serve as a euphemism for suppress. "Is not helpful" is inane gobbledegook. All this suggests to me is that these staffers are going to let El Hefe get away with this. There is way to look at this that is not political. It is clinical - as in, "Sir, are you nuts?"
4
It is difficult to think about trump's sick narcissism without thinking about his Republican enablers --- which is worse ? When someone suffers from serious mental defects, those who are willing to exploit it for their own political and personal gain are all the more disgusting.
10
Maybe economics and trade are terms that Trump thinks he understands.
As far as I can tell, Trump is nowhere near the sharpest tool in the shed, and usually manages to prove that with at least one tweet per day. I gave him a chance when he started, but he managed to burn through all of his stupid points in less than 3 months.
6
The stable genius must be a " Roads " scholar, also. Right, GOP ?
Yes, this is extremely well deserved sarcasm, for the clueless.
Seriously.
2
You cannot make this stuff up.
4
About that dossier... if our boy was in bed with two females, wouldn't he be bragging about that? What was going on in that room? I assume that effective kompromat uses entrapment on its unwitting victims. Hummmm?
1
That's our Trump
Dumb and dumber, and bullying with it.
Shameless and shameful!
17
Just keep in mind with all these too late now critical comments that Trump's base, the Electoral College , Lying Liars like Limbaugh, Trump and Friends , Trump's Republican Party and all the news coverage gave us this fraud and clown in office.
When will American voters start to take responsibility for refusing to think, i.e., use your reason not emotion about what's being told to you before you make a decision who you want to see as a President.
17
Why do I have the nagging feeling that there is zip amount of work being done in the White House or Senate?
Now, here is another sad tale of Trumpenceism. Trump beats his bone-spur feeties against the floor, going all purple-faced because he's supposed to be doing something adult like listening to an intelligence briefing, and because the adults in the room can't deal with men who are utterly incurious and breath-takingly ignorant, they dummy-down all facts, and only speak of, well, whatever interests him.
....which just happens to be money.
And only money.
And, meanwhile, over in the corner, Pence stands quietly, smiling adoringly, being a perfect little "servant-leader" for his Master and his God.
I am so ashamed at these men who are supposed to be professionals, who claim so much of our budget, who are the interface of this nation and every other nation on this planet.
Don't try to sweet-talk me into thinking this is anything other than "adult men baby-sitting another adult man".
Disgusting.
30
@rosa
I only with they were doing nothing. Look at all the far right judges they've installed. The tax cuts for the rich. Etc. etc. etc.
And, toxifying our one and only precious and finite earth for short term profit and support from their wealthy powerful buddies that bought and paid for Republican dominance against the actual majority.
13
@rosa...Thank you for your service. Those who refused to use deferments to avoid military service deserve the respect and admiration of every patriotic American. Thank you again. Welcome Home!
1
"Mr. Trump, finding traditional intelligence briefings less helpful than his predecessors..."
Such language, by the Times, normalizes a situation that calls for non-stop alarm. Cut it out.
40
He brings the "skills" he honed on The Apprentice to running the world's largest, wealthiest, best-armed, most complex democracy with not even an 8th grader's understanding of the Constitution or how the government works. God help us all.
32
My goodness don’t the “intelligence chiefs” have any guts left ?
10
"The person who does not read has no advantage over the person who cannot read."-authorship under debate. Stop for one second and imagine what your understanding of the world would be like if you had not read all of your life. That is Trump's mind.
25
@Leland Scary.
1
This helps clarify why he loves dictators so much. He fancies himself a great one-on-one deal maker and simply has no interest in learning about different forms of government. He's also spoiled by having had two years of Republican control in Congress. He doesn't have the patience to actually negotiate with opposing coalitions so it makes sense that he would be baffled by leaders who do, like Angela Merkel.
I don't think it's necessarily bad to have a new way of looking at things, but his refusal to learn is horrifying and his public criticism of his intelligence agencies in unacceptable under any circumstance. The world is a very complicated place, and Donald doesn't do complexity. As much as I try to give him the benefit of the doubt at times, it still appears that Rex Tillerson was right about one thing: the man is a moron.
20
Let's just say it: they have to use pictures and simple sentences to account for the 8-Year-Old-in-Chief's ADD.
It scares the living daylights out of me that someone who can't sit through more than two NATIONAL SECURITY briefings a week without making faces and rolling his eyes is who we are relying on to keep our nation safe.
22
"To Woo a Skeptical Trump, Intelligence Chiefs Talk Economics Instead of Spies"
Talking economics instead of spies" will hardly work on Mr. Trump. To get his attention, Intelligence Chiefs need to "raise the stakes" by explicitly addressing how Trump Organization can benefit or get hurt from each domestic and international situation.
9
Can't they put this in coloring book for him?
12
Crony capitalism is not economics.
7
It has become obvious many individuals in the Justice department and FBI had much pro Hillary political baggage. Are the Intelligence agencies infected with political baggage too? Government agency unions are a major source of political support of the Democrat party,,of that there is no doubt.
1
@Lane
Here come the conspiracy theories, the us against them mentality that has gotten us into this fix.
1
@Lane, before Trump came along, the intelligence agencies were always considered right wing establishment, conservative to the core. The intelligence community was always more supportive of Republican candidates than Democrats. Trump's disdain says much about Trump, and very little about the intelligence agencies.
3
@Bill...I guess Deep Throat didn't get the Top Secret memo that Nixon was a Republican. Maybe Langley forgot to pass it on.
Willful Ignorance. In all the books written about Trump it is what dominates his intransigence.
10
Have they tried booking 10 minutes on Fox & Friends?
11
Easily bored, or easily confused?
That is the question.
We already know the answer.
33
Fact is no one can beat Trump except someone from the Midwest who can swing those key states. I would like to see Sherri’s Brown run as he has real vision for labor and the middle class.
7
Trump neither knows nor cares about the economy (see "tariffs), as long as his one-percenter cadre keeps the big bucks. He makes his decisions based Fox and Putin; the intelligence services are the last on his list of "advisers."
24
This strategy also keeps the most classified information about overseas operations and intelligence from Trump, and by inference Jared and Ivanka, and by inference MBS and other of Jared's pals who will use it to kill journalists and other enemies.
21
@Peter
t least something positive comes out of it.
How about focusing on how climate change will affect economics?
44
@david sabbagh Climate change is a hoax! - D. Trump
1
It is both sad and frightening that our intelligence chiefs have to treat the President like a child to get his attention.
74
The Constitution sets out three eligibility requirements to be President: one must be 35 years of age, a resident “within the United States” for 14 years, and a “natural born Citizen.” I would like to add the requirement that to be President one must be able to read and write, in the English language, at no less than a high school graduate level, clearly Donald J. Trump can do neither.
29
I don’t recognize my country any longer. In just two short years of this vile man’s reign of error, over 200 years of stability have turned the USA into an Orwellian nightmare.
Let’s be honest: we’ve somehow now accepted strange as normal. Our daily feeding of endless lies from the Whitehouse and complicit Republicans has poisoned our intelligence agencies.
50
The officers could use little picture books, too. "Spot steals bone, Spot eats bone, Spot is a naughty doggie."
22
It's so sad when we must dumb-down our intelligence reports for an unintelligent president.
Sometimes "good enough" just isn't any good, and we will all suffer the consequences.
26
The Intelligence community cowering in front of the most illiterate Presidential leadership in generations. Sickening.
34
The job of the intelligence officers is to provide facts and analyses. The one who decides is the President.
So it looks like Trump's world view matches that of his followers.
That makes sense of the 2016 election.
8
A person, uninformed by choice, who willfully ignores facts at hand and has no rational concept of how to deal with them, does not deserve to be the president of anything, never mind what was arguably the greatest country in the world until he took it over. Trump's transgressions, of both omission and commission, make it long past time for him to be gone.
38
@CP Indeed, one would get a more serious hearing from a junior high school student that this man. His treatment of intelligence officials should be enough to invoke the 25th Amendment.
13
If they want Trump's attention, perhaps the intelligence chiefs could try jingling their keys in the air while saying, "Shiny object, shiny object."
Or they could offer him candy.
19
@DJ Hamilton - Or better than candy, offer a Big Mac!
1
" He is no longer making informed decisions.." I missed the time when he was, ever, making informed decisions.
36
Naive? Trump is the poster human for naïveté. He actually thought Kim was going to give up his nuclear arsenal and he’d win the Nobel Peace Prize.
60
@Grey...Fortunately for real Americans, Kim outsmarted Trump, so he can resume threatening to nuke US cities. Unfortunately, he doesn't have enough ICBMs to annihilate everyone with the first foray, so some of y'all will have to wait your turn while he builds more. Maybe Kim will win the Nobel if he agrees to keep Oslo out of the blast zone.That would really frost Trump. #resist!
He’s not mentally qualified. When I say that it doesn’t mean I claim to be smarter than an average person. He’s one our very lowest, worst citizens. Sad!!
37
Thank you GOP and the Electoral College for giving us this idiot. Anyone who thinks America is a democracy is naive.
50
you just don't understand business. if you did, you would understand Trump and his motivations. so says the President, and so say we all. despite playing the great disrupter for the benefit of his bedazzled voters, Trump in all his blustery delivery acts just like a Republican, imposing the needs of business - big business - first and foremost. his idea is an old one: "the business of America is business." back to your huts, serfs! the lord of the manor is abroad.
1
@Me...No sense in repeating that the United States of America is NOT a democracy. Y'all just refuse to learn. But, what can you expect from those who think low is high and a plurality is a majority? Nevertheless, don't thank us, thank the Founding Fathers. They are responsible for our Republic [ever recite the Pledge?] as well as the Electoral College and Wyoming's two Senators.
1
“He really doesn’t have a lot of respect for the intellectual, professional class,” said Walter Russell Mead, a fellow at the Hudson Institute.
James Clapper, President Obama’s director of national intelligence, said that Mr. Trump was "not a reader".
Senator Angus King, the Maine independent who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said “the problem is the message sent to agencies: ‘Don’t tell me information I don’t want to hear.’"
“My generals don’t understand business,” said Trump
Ignorance and greed are Trump's twin pillars of 'knowledge', along with his deranged view that the generals are his personal property.
This won't end well.
Yet another reason for Trump's removal from office before his ignorance, greed and megalomania cause catastrophic damage to the United States.
80