When President Trump lashed out at the heads of American national intelligence agencies this week, he called out Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats by name, according to a report.
The report, published by CNN and citing “two people with knowledge of the outburst,” claims Trump was furious Wednesday as he watched television chyrons blare that the officials had contradicted him.
“The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong!” Trump said in a series of tweets later that morning. “When I became President Iran was making trouble all over the Middle East, and beyond. Since ending the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, they are MUCH different, but… a source of potential danger and conflict. They are testing Rockets (last week) and more, and are coming very close to the edge. There economy is now crashing, which is the only thing holding them back. Be careful of Iran. Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!”
Coats on Tuesday refuted Trump’s claim that ISIS has been defeated in the Middle East.
During happier times between the pair, Trump last summer called Coats a “great patriot” whom he trusts.
“This is what he does. He’s been doing a very good job. I have tremendous faith in Dan Coats,” Trump commented during an interview with CBS last July.
Trump’s rebuke of Coats and his colleagues in the administration this week has drawn criticism from the national intelligence and defense community.
“This is the whole essence of the Trump foreign policy,” former Pentagon spokesman retired Rear Adm. John Kirby said in Thursday morning’s Washington Examiner Daily on Defense briefing. “It’s all about him and his outsized ego and personality.”
[Related: Schumer pushes intelligence officials to meet with Trump to ‘educate him’]
