Donald Trump is on Vladimir Putin's side and takes it out on his predecessors responsible for US intelligence, accused of having favored the suspicion of Russian influence on the presidential elections. Trump is convinced that US intelligence activity is aimed at hindering a collaboration with Russia necessary for the White House both on the front of the Syrian crisis and on that of North Korea. But Trump's words provoke a riot in the intelligence community and a strong embarrassment of the current CIA leaders.
"By trusting Moscow and minimizing the threat posed by Russia, President Trump poses a danger to national security," retort former US intelligence chief James Clapper and former CIA chief John Brennan, for which Russian interference on the vote is "proven and justified".
The storm was triggered by Trump's "ambiguous and contradictory" statements after his brief face-to-face with Putin in Vietnam. In the world of services, the fact that the president gave the impression of giving more credit to the leader of the Kremlin - who went back to denying any involvement in American affairs - did not go down well with the conclusions reached in recent months by the CIA, NSA and FBI . In fact, in a report last January, the three agencies, with the imprimatur of the director of national intelligence James Clapper, put pen to paper that Russia influenced the race for the White House in order to favor Trump against Hillary Clinton.
Mike Pompeo himself, a trusted man Trump has put at the helm of the CIA, has been forced to release a statement in the last few hours in which he stresses that the position of his agency "has not changed": Putin interfered in the vote last November. But Trump is not there and on Twitter, in a pause from his long mission in Asia, he defines Clapper and Brennan as "politicians" and "manipulators", accusing the Democrats of being behind the affair. The fact that the president believes more in Putin's words than in those of the intelligence community is immoral ", replied Clapper, for which" it is disconcerting that Trump did not make a strong appeal to a Russian president committed to undermining our system and our democracy ”. "Trying to paint Putin in another way and feed illusions and ambiguities - he warned - puts our country at risk". Brennan also didn't mince words in responding to the tycoon. "He should be ashamed" of his attitude towards the Russian president: "He seems intimidated by Putin, afraid of what he might say or what might come out of the investigation into Russiagate. This is very disturbing, a security hazard ”. Two other former senior CIA officials are also very critical.
For Michael Hayden, "the president must know that even the men he has put at the head of intelligence agree with what he called 'politicians'". Michael Morell emphasized instead that Trump should not trust Putin, “a former Russian agent trained to lie and manipulate.