Originally Posted: January 9, 2017
The president-elect’s denigration of the Russian hacking findings will make it harder to make a case against other U.S. adversaries, former officials say.
President-elect Donald Trump’s public bashing of the intelligence community could drive some agents and analysts away from their jobs, degrading the community’s overall capabilities, former officials tells Nextgov.
The public discord could also drive a wedge between intelligence gatherers and the man who will soon be their consumer in chief, eroding the intelligence community’s typical role as a check on the presumptions and preconceived notions of policymakers, analysts say.
“My impression is morale has taken a hit,” said Joel Brenner, a former National Security Agency senior counsel. “When the president of the United States disparages your work, demeans your work, insults the integrity of your work, you wonder why you’re doing it, especially for a government salary.”
Trump has spent a great deal of time since his November election in open dispute with intelligence leaders over their conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top Russian government officials ordered a hacking campaign against the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations that wreaked havoc on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Trump has described intelligence agencies’ investigation into those breaches as a politically motivated “witch hunt.” He suggested intel officials delayed a briefing on the breaches last week because they were scrambling to find more evidence. Intel leaders said the briefing was not, in fact, delayed.
Trump also used a derisive tone in his tweets, including putting the word “intelligence” inside quotation marks when describing the community.
Statements like that could be the tipping point for some intelligence officers and analysts undecided about sticking with the profession, said Paul Pillar, a former longtime CIA official and national intelligence officer for Near East affairs. READ MORE