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Trump Says He Doesn’t Need Intelligence Briefings

This past Sunday, Trump sat down on “Fox News Sunday” and responded to reports of his absence at intelligence briefings in the final stages of his presidential campaign, and in the weeks since he became the President-elect.

“You know, I’m a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years — it could be eight years. … I don’t need that. … But I do say: If something should change, let us know.”

In opting out of these vital meetings, Trump has decided that he will put his trust in VP Mike Pence, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and Secretary of Defense John Kelly. Though there may be some ‘fluid situations’ that require his attendance, he has indicated that he doesn’t plan on regularly attending after being sworn in either. The intelligence briefings are important in that they give the president a run down of things he needs to know about, and because face to face meetings improve the quality of the work the intelligence community does. They should be especially important to Trump, as he’s coming into office with little experience in intelligence. His skipping of these meetings can leave him uninformed of the issues and not knowledgeable enough to fix the ones he does know about.

Since becoming elected president, it is reported that he has only attended one briefing per week, a decision frowned upon by the intelligence community. The former reality-TV star’s dismissal of the need for them comes amid the CIA concluding that the Russian government interfered with the election to guarantee a Trump win. Both Trump and his team are denying this adamantly, sweeping the claims aside as ‘just another excuse’ and ‘ridiculous’.

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