president Trump set a personal Twitter record Monday when, for the first time in months, there was no White House Tweet about anything this morning and, in fact instead of his usual 5-7 a.m. flurry of tweets, his first tweet today was a few minutes before 11 a.m. and merely announced his upcoming meeting with Canadian PM Trudeau.
North Korea’s provocative missile launch about which President Trump had earlier tweeted, “it won’t happen,” generated only a mild statement about the action by Kim Jong-un, which is widely seen as the long-expected early challenge to the White House.
Could the lack of definitive response be because the White House lacks a national security advisor whom President Trump can rely on for truthful answers? His chief security advisor, Retired General Flynn was caught lying about contacts with Russia.
Trump quiet on Flynn
In addition to the North Korea action, another prominent news item which the White House has not commented on, either from the President, or spokespeople, is the spate of reports, many from inside the new Administration, that flynn lied to many people about his Russian phone calls - prevarication is not something which you would want to learn about the highest security advisor to President Trump.
Flynn, the White House National Security Advisor to President Trump is on the hotplate these days after lying to the Vice President about his contacts with the Russian Ambassador to the US while President Obama was still in office and therefore had the sole US word on diplomatic matters such as sanctions.
However, that isn’t the first problem Flynn has had.
The life-long Democrat (his words) had a distinguished military career where, among other things, he was in charge of the famous Seal Team 6 which later took down Osama Bin Laden.
After Flynn left Afghanistan, President Obama appointed the general to head the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the military’s equivalent of the CIA.
That was 2012 but just two years later President Obama was forced to oust General Flynn from his position at the DIA (Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling,), pushed out by the undersecretary, Michael Vickers. Flynn told the New York Post that he was fired for “trying to change the culture of the DIA.” In truth, it is widely thought that Flynn was appointed to do exactly that, shake up the 17,000 person agency which many see as largely laid back and too complacent.
This dismissal turned Flynn into what Politico Magazine called “The America’s Angriest General,” because of the way he instantly turned on his previous sponsor and backer President Obama.
Leaked emails from the extremely highly-respected former Sec.
of State Colin Powell shed light on why Flynn was forced to retire. Secretary Powell, who was born in Harlem, New York-born of Jamaican immigrants, was also former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . Asked why the now "right-wing nutty" Flynn lost his job, "Abusive with staff, didn't listen, worked against policy, bad management, etc," were Powell’s reply
Flynn consulting
After being forced out of the military, Flynn started Flynn Intel Group, which is currently viewed as a major conflict of interest because during the Summer of 2016, as Candidate Trump’s advisor, Flynn began getting classified national security briefings because Trump declined to attend them. But this was happening while the company bearing his name was lobbying for the government of Turkey and more.
(NOTE: your reporter has had many interactions with both the CIA and DIA both through The National Press Club and organisations such as SIGCAT and obtaining credentials to pass into the CIA Headquarters compound in McLean/Langley, VA.)