President Donald Trump's intentional and repeated assault on his own intelligence agencies is creating a rift unprecedented with the White House, Gen. Michael Hayden wrote for The New York Times.
Hayden, former head of the CIA and the NSA, writes that Trump is politicizing and publicizing a large intel-gathering enterprise that should be apolitical and working in the background.
"I can't remember another White House so quick to dismiss those agencies' judgments or so willing to discredit them as dishonest or incompetent," Hayden writes.
To date, Trump has blamed the intelligence community for leaks, mocked it on social media as if its intel is a form of fake news, and attempted to enlist the them to make its case for a travel ban.
"This is exactly where intelligence professionals do not want to be: thrust into the partisan arena of political masters who have different rules, vocabulary, goals and standards," Hayden wrote.
Hayden gave a tip of the cap to new CIA chief Mike Pompeo, who he credited with repairing the CIA-White House relationship to a degree. But the trend is not a good one for Pompeo or Dan Coats, the yet-to-be confirmed director of national intelligence.
"I don't envy Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Coats. They have to run complex enterprises and produce quality intelligence even as they push back against an administration that has questioned their officers’ integrity, has been casual in its use of intelligence and is not above calling on intelligence professionals to provide political cover," Hayden wrote.
"And they must push back hard, because whether Mr. Trump appreciates it or not, he, and the country, need an independent intelligence enterprise, not a compliant one," Hayden concluded.
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