Distracted

Yesterday, the New York Times published an article (link here) about how Donald Trump is, once again, falsely blaming the American intelligence community, this time for failing to alert him to the severity of the looming coronavirus threat. In reality, the problem is Trump, not the intelligence briefings.

Simply put, Trump reads almost nothing in the written intelligence materials prepared exclusively for him. And, in oral briefings, his attention quickly wanders.

"The President veers off on tangents and getting him back on topic is difficult," the article notes. "He has a short attention span and rarely, if ever, reads intelligence reports, relying instead on conservative media and his friends for information. He is unashamed to interrupt intelligence officers and riff based on tips or gossip he hears from the former casino magnate Steve Wynn, the retired golfer Gary Player or Christopher Ruddy, the conservative media executive."

A golfer? WTF? Seriously? He has no access to special and confidential information. Why does Trump trust him over the intelligence professionals?

"Trump rarely absorbs information that he disagrees with or that runs counter to his worldview," the piece states. "Briefing him has been so great a challenge compared with his predecessors that the intelligence agencies have hired outside consultants to study how better to present information to him."

The bottom line is simple — America does not need a President who is as intellectually incurious as a lazy juvenile who refuses to do his homework. We need a President who takes a sober, mature, responsible view of intelligence and isn't afraid to fucking read.