It's not new that the President doesn't have the attention span to sit through intelligence briefings? Previous Presidents weren't able to focus enough to read through briefings and required pictures to understand basic concepts? Intelligence officials needed to scatter in the President's name in the report to get them to care enough to read what they wrote?
Nothing about this is situation normal.
The bar for Trump is so low it’s below ground so I guess being able to understand pictures drawn for kindergarteners is considered a success.
My situation normal comment was mostly meant toward execs/cabinet/members/presidents having their agenda, beliefs, and message they want to deliver, regardless of intel. Nothing new.
Want examples? Trump wants a tougher stance on Iran with nukes, Obama insisted Al Qaeda was dead, Shinseki said 400,000 soldiers would be needed for decades in Iraq. Iran is an issue but not much with nukes, Al Qaeda was doing fine, and Shinseki wss right in Iraq but all but fired that day when Rumsfeld got pissed at him for stating that. Happens constantly.
This is not new. Trump is Trump. He perks up at pictures and titles. Ok. Obama attended less than 40% of his meetings let alone pay attention, Bush let Cheney and Rumsfeld manipulate his briefings and finally wisened up in 2005ish, Clinton/Gore publicly mocked North and other intel people for warnings on OBL.
Hey I do not get why Presidents cannot listen to a 30-60 minute intel brief with Directors, other execs if Director NA, or actual field agents if they uncovered something critical. But I am not President either.
The more important aspect is miltary leaders get critical info to theatre, and LEO get critical information. Presidents are just trying to win re election more than anything. They are tately needed for field action.
