Day 1,126: Trump taps unqualified sycophant to be acting head of intelligence
While campaigning, Donald Trump swore he would surround himself with the best-of-the-best. He would only hire incredibly qualified people, he said.
The wake of the exits over the past three years — and Trump’s slandering of those on the way out — tell a very different story. See, for example, Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Tom Price, Ryan Zinke, Scott Pruitt, Kirstjen Nielsen, Rick Perry and more. Add in non-Cabinet positions and the list would take hours to read through.
With a dearth of qualified individuals to choose from for various positions, Trump is now looking exclusively for allies, no matter how unqualified they are.
With Dan Coats vacating his Direction of National Intelligence position last year, and Trump’s most recent acting director’s term set to expire, Trump searched for a replacement and found one with zero intelligence experience.
“I am pleased to announce that our highly respected Ambassador to Germany, @RichardGrenell, will become the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Rick has represented our Country exceedingly well and I look forward to working with him,” Trump tweeted.
Even in an acting role, Grenell’s lack of intelligence-related experience is likely to unsettle the US intelligence community, which has endured repeated attacks from the President since his 2016 election win over the Russia investigation and later the whistleblower complaint that gave way to the Ukraine impeachment inquiry, which made Trump just the third president in American history to be impeached.
But it does not appear that Trump is looking for someone with deep intelligence experience in the role — a former senior White House official described Trump’s decision as “filling the gaps” following the impeachment acquittal, sensing disloyalty in Maguire, and filling that position with somebody he sees as sufficiently loyal. Trump is “looking for a ‘political’ who will have his back,” the former official said.
Even Trump’s allies are alarmed by the move to tap Grenell for the role.
One source close to Trump told CNN they were surprised by the pick, noting Grenell has zero intelligence-related experience.
And another Trump adviser described Grenell as “out of his league” for the acting DNI job, adding that some in the administration are “embarrassed by his behavior.” Previous holders of the DNI job have served in the intelligence community, the US Senate and senior levels of the military. Grenell, on the other hand, does not boast a resume with similar credentials despite his stint as the US ambassador to Germany.
Trump just wants a warm body that he knows he can control in the seat, even if they only occupy that seat temporarily. Grenell is highly unlikely to face a confirmation hearing, as even Republicans believe he is unqualified and has done a poor job in his ambassadorship. But for Trump, that’s a minor problem as the next bootlicker can be found later.
National security has officially taken a backseat to sycophantism.
1,126 days in, 336 to go
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