Former senator and U.S. Ambassador to Germany Dan Coats is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Director of National Intelligence, according to multiple reports, with a formal announcement expected as soon as Friday.
The New York Times first reported the news Thursday afternoon that the Republican lawmaker and diplomat would be selected for the job. The position is subject to Senate confirmation, but Coats, an even-tempered veteran of the nation’s capital who concluded his congressional term just this month, would figure to have an easy road.
Coats’s appointment would come amid the president-elect’s sparring with the U.S. Intelligence Community, the very apparatus the 73-year-old Hoosier would be responsible for overseeing. DNI was created in 2004, upon a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission Report to reorganize American intelligence. “The [intelligence community’s] head—the Director of Central Intelligence—has at least three jobs: running the CIA, coordinating a 15-agency confederation, and being the intelligence analyst-in-chief to the president. No one person can do all these things,” the report read.
But Trump reportedly doubts the DNI’s current role. Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal quoted sources familiar with the president-elect’s plans who said Trump believes the office “has become bloated and politicized.” As a result, restructuring and cutbacks may await the agency.
Coats himself was a spending hawk in his most recent Senate term; he delivered a regular “Waste of the Week” speech from the chamber floor. He’s also been a hawk toward Russia, however, in contrast with the person to whom he’d report. Coats encouraged strict sanctions on the country in response to its aggression toward Crimea and coauthored a non-binding resolution urging steps to “punish Russia’s outrageous and dangerous misbehavior.” After President Obama announced a new round of penalties against allies of the Kremlin in 2014, the Russian Foreign Ministry placed Coats on a list of American officials banned from traveling to the nation.
He joked about the dishonor.
“While I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to go on vacation with my family in Siberia this summer, I am honored to be on this list,” he said.
Coats received praise from several of his Indiana colleagues Thursday, including the person elected to replace him in the Senate, former representative and Marine captain Todd Young.
“I can’t think of an individual I trust more to advise the president and direct our intelligence operations than Senator Coats,” Young told TWS in a statement. “He deserves all the accolades he will receive in the coming days. This is an excellent pick by President-elect Trump.”
Freshman Rep. Jim Banks, a veteran of the War in Afghanistan, added there was “no question” that Coats is an “excellent choice” for the post.
