Trump rebuked his intelligence chiefs this week. The United States is a functional democracy unlike the sham democracy of Russia and the facade of elections in China. This is evident from the way Donald Trump and his intelligence chiefs have differed with each other and the same is made public. The US president had said that the threat from ISIS and North Korea was almost over. This was the reason he had decided to withdraw troops from Syria and is heading for a second meeting with the Korean leader Kim Jong. His intelligence chiefs differed from his assessment and stated so publicly.
CNBC has reported that the heads of intelligence rebutted point by point the opinion voiced by the US president on ISIS and North Korea.
Opposition to Trump
Trump had stated that ISIS was defeated and North Korea was no longer a credible threat to America. Newsweek reported that Trump has rebuked his intelligence chiefs and suggested that they need to "go back to school." This was after the chiefs voiced their opposition to the assessment made by the president. Trump also castigated the chiefs of Intelligence on their assessment of Iran. He is firm in the view that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and that is the reason he withdrew from the Iran nuclear accord, so carefully negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015.
On Tuesday the nations top intelligence official told the Senate members that the US intelligence leaders believed that Iran is not undertaking a major activity to develop nuclear weapons.
Trump and Intelligence heads
Trump has been at loggerheads with his intelligence chiefs on many matters right from the time he was campaigning for president.
He has, on a number of occasions, publicly rebuked and differed from Intelligence assessments. He feels the intelligence community is extremely passive and naive when it comes to the danger from Iran. Maybe he has a point there as Iran is extremely antagonistic to America? They are also testing rockets and there is some truth that Iran is just biding time after their economy crashed.
North Korea
North Korea is a different case and Trump may well be proved right. His breakthrough meeting with Kim in Singapore may well herald the thawing of relations and who knows whether in the years to come North Korea may not do a Vietnam, which at one time was a staunch supporter of China and ended up by fighting a war against it in 1983. Similarly, Trump's meeting with Putin at Helsinki was heavily criticized.
Last word
Trump is a man with strong opinions. For example, his recognition of Guaido as Venezuela's president and he is not afraid to articulate his views. It is possible the Intelligence chiefs' thinking is still coloured by the past when the Soviet Union and America confronted each other.