The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #168285   Message #4150070
Posted By: Stilly River Sage
12-Aug-22 - 10:20 AM
Thread Name: BS: Trump Actions & Effects (NO new Trmp threads!)
Subject: RE: BS: Trump Actions and Effects
The New York Times today is filled with an array of analysis pieces to do with Trump's behavior toward the intelligence community, the things they did to try to lessen his damage by blurting out or tweeting classified stuff. For example:
In August 2019, Mr. Trump received a briefing about an explosion at a space launch facility in Iran. He was so taken by a classified satellite photo of the explosion that he wanted to post it on Twitter immediately. Aides pushed back, saying that making the high resolution photo public could give adversaries insight into America’s sophisticated surveillance capabilities.

He posted the photo anyway, adding a message that the United States had no role in the explosion but wished Iran “best wishes and good luck” in discovering what caused it. As he told one American official about his decision: “I have declassification authority. I can do anything I want.”

Later in the piece we find:
If there is not one origin story that explains Mr. Trump’s antipathy toward spy agencies, the 2017 American intelligence assessment about the Kremlin’s efforts to sabotage the 2016 presidential election — and Russia’s preference for Mr. Trump — played perhaps the biggest role. Mr. Trump saw the document as an insult, written by his “deep state” enemies to challenge the legitimacy of his election and his presidency.