Former CIA Director John Brennan says world leaders view President Trump as not only “incompetent,” but also “delusional.”
Harping on Trump’s deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brennan said the president “still does not grasp the seriousness of what it is that Putin has done.”
“Not only to Ukraine, but also the fact that he interfered in our election, continues to support the genocide of President Assad in Syria. All of these transgressions that have come from the Russians,” Brennan said on MSNBC, where he is a contributor.
Brennan, a vocal critic of the president who was CIA director during the Obama administration, slammed Trump’s suggestion to readmit Russia to the group of the world’s seven largest economies just before a G-7 summit in France. Russia was expelled from the then-G-8 in 2014 after it seized Crimea from Ukraine.
“For him then to say blithely that he believes that they should get back into what would be the G-8 despite the unanimous view of those countries previously that because of the annexation of Crimea, because of what they’ve been doing in Eastern Ukraine, that Russia does not deserve a seat at the table. So, it’s still rather puzzling as to why Donald Trump continues to give Putin the benefit of the doubt when, in fact, he should be coming down pretty hard on the Russian leader,” Brennan said.
Trump announced Monday he intends to invite Putin to the G-7 summit in 2020, which the U.S. will host. “I think it would be better to have Russia inside the tent than outside the tent,” Trump said. Trump’s push to make amends with Putin comes after former special counsel Robert Mueller warned Russia is still trying to meddle in U.S. elections.
Host Chris Hayes asked Brennan if he believes world leaders and intelligence services have changed the way they act toward Trump because of his propensity to be unprepared and unpredictable.
“Absolutely. I think a lot of the leaders have written off what he says certainly publicly,” Brennan said. “But also, I’m very concerned given his public dishonesty, what dishonesty is he engaged in the private meetings with these world leaders, with those allies of countries that we have worked with so hard for so long. What is he telling them? But I think they realize that he is way, way out of his depth, that he is incompetent, but also he is somewhat delusional as far as how he views the world and his inability to grasp the reality of the geostrategic situation around the globe today.”
The interview took place as Russia barred entry to at least two U.S. senators planning to participate in a congressional delegation visit next month.
Although Trump announced in August 2018 that Brennan’s security clearance was being stripped because of “erratic behavior” that disqualified him from having access to sensitive information, a source told the New York Times in May that the White House never followed through with the complicated bureaucratic process of revocation.
