President Trump is reportedly thinking about pushing out Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and has held informal meetings with people who could replace him.
Trump has been weighing replacing the 76-year-old Coats for months, according to Fox News. Possible replacements include former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford and Fred Fleitz, who served as national security adviser John Bolton’s chief of staff.
Trump discussed the possibility with Fleitz in February but did not officially offer him the job. It isn’t clear how many other people are being considered or who they are. Trump was upset with Coats after he appeared critical of the president’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin during an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell last year.
During the interview, Mitchell told Coats that Trump tweeted about Putin coming to the White House. Coats looked shocked at hearing the news. After a sigh and some nervous laughter, Coats said, “That’s going to be special.”
Mitchell also touched on the controversial Helsinki meeting between the two leaders, during which Trump and Putin were alone in a room with only translators accompanying them. Coats said he would have advised the president to consider a different approach.
“That’s is the president’s prerogative; if he had asked me how that ought to be conducted, I would have suggested a different way. But that’s not my role, that’s not my job, so it is what it is,” Coats said.
Coats, a former Republican senator from Indiana who has a close relationship with Vice President Mike Pence, has served as director of national intelligence since March 2017.
