Joining Twitter by issuing his first tweets on Thursday, former CIA Director John Brennan signaled he has a clear intent.
After initially tweeting in memorial of the Lockerbie bombing (in which a CIA officer died), Brennan unleashed on President Trump.
Trump Admin threat to retaliate against nations that exercise sovereign right in UN to oppose US position on Jerusalem is beyond outrageous. Shows @realDonaldTrump expects blind loyalty and subservience from everyone—qualities usually found in narcissistic, vengeful autocrats.
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) December 21, 2017
I expect President Trump will respond in relatively short order. Then, I expect Brennan will respond. And then, we will have a Twitter war.
Still, even if it will be entertaining at face value, the coming Twitter war won’t be something to celebrate. After all, while Brennan and Trump clearly detest each other, there’s nothing terribly pleasant about a former CIA director and the president insulting one another.
Brennan is an intelligent guy and must recognize as much. Moreover, he knows that aggravating Trump won’t necessarily help smooth over continuing frictions between the administration and the intelligence community, so I wonder why he’s now embarking on this battle.
I suspect two reasons:
First, because while current CIA director Mike Pompeo and Brennan don’t seem to get along, Brennan might recognize that Pompeo’s commitment to the agency and his good relationship with Trump have allowed the CIA to stabilize its position. As a career CIA public servant who then became its director, I don’t believe Brennan would jeopardize America’s top intelligence service for the sake of his own ego.
Second, Brennan obviously feels that he should follow in the example of former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, and escalate in criticizing President Trump.
Regardless, while Brennan’s views on certain issues (I disagree with him on the UN vote) are sure to be controversial, I’m glad he’s on Twitter. On issues from Saudi Arabia (where he was once a station chief) to China to counterterrorism, Brennan’s feed should offer some interesting takes!
