The lack of synergy between President Donald Trump and the intelligence community has been one of the most "dismaying" aspects of this transition – because "no president can live without them" and he can hurt "well-intentioned, hard-working people" – the first U.S. Director of National Intelligence said Sunday.
"I would hope that there can be a coming together between Mr. Trump and the new leadership of the intelligence community, so he comes to appreciate more – more than he's indicated so far – the fine and important work the intelligence community does," John Negroponte told "The Cats Roundtable" host John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York.
Nominated CIA Director, Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., and former Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., who was selected to be the next DNI, need to work in concert with the president and try to avoid appearing in the news, according to Negroponte, like former President Barack Obama's intelligence leadership has.
"They've been a bit too quick to speak out publicly," Negroponte said.
". . . I don't [think] we're ever very well served if the intelligence community gets too much in the crossfire of publicity itself, and I think they should let others speak for them. And that has usually proven to be the best way to go about this. They've got to be more anonymous, and not so much on the front page."
Democrats have helped politicize the intelligence community, recently holding up Pompeo's confirmation as CIA Director.
"There is nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and the CIA than Donald Trump," President Trump said Saturday at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. "These are really special, amazing people. Very, very few people could do the job that you people do."
"I am so behind you. I know maybe sometimes you haven't gotten the backing that you've wanted. You're going to get so much backing."
It was reported earlier this week, President Trump is considering overhauling the structure of the top U.S. intelligence agencies.
Negroponte also spoke more widely about President Trump's Cabinet, which he said is a talented group but their success will be predicated on working together throughout the administration, and there has been some "divergence of view."
"The key issue is if they work together as an integrated team, and all are pulling on the same oar so to speak, in terms of the direction of our foreign policy," Negroponte said. "That's the key thing: a coordinated and well-integrated foreign policy."
Some presidents take longer than others to get there, "and we paid a price for it," he said.
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