"Jesus Christ, he treated the PDB like a kiddie picture book":

[tblue37]

Link to tweet

Text

Tom Nichols
@RadioFreeTom
Jesus Christ, he treated the PDB like a kiddie picture book

Jeff Stein
@SpyTalker
‘Toward the end of the administration, Mr. Trump ripped pictures that intrigued him out of the President’s Daily Brief — a compendium of often classified information about potential national security threats — but it is unclear whether he took them to the residence with him.’

[PatSeg]

1. It is terrifying to think

of what all we don't know. This sounds like everyday occurrences in the Trump White House.

[WillUSAF]

3. Thats EXACTLY how I feel.

What secrets are still being hidden. He is the most corrupt person in America. You know that he and his people did all kinds of slimy shit in the 4 years they ruined our country.

[PatSeg]

8. They will be uncovering stuff for decades

The people in Trump's world are careless, inexperienced, and disorganized. I'm sure they've left plenty of evidence to uncover.

[Midnight Writer]

13. Absolutely. They are still finding stuff from the Nixon years.

And my bet is that Trump is a hundred times worse than Nixon.

[JHB]

18. I think your "hundred" is off by one, maybe more, zeros.

[PatSeg]

31. Oh absolutely

Much worse than Nixon, worse than anyone I could imagine, at least in the United States.

[tblue37]

2. "Don't forget that the former guy...normally could never have obtained a security clearance."

George Conway
@gtconway3d
Don't forget that the former guy, under any normal standard, could never have obtained a security clearance.

Link to tweet

[Rebl2]

6. Maybe

anybody running for president should have to pass a security clearance from now on.

[PatSeg]

10. Yeah, vet them BEFORE they get elected

[Lonestarblue]

19. We could make this a requirement if we had a functioning Congress.

Along with requiring financial disclosures, protecting voting rights, and protecting the right to reproductive choice.

[Rebl2]

24. Agreed

[dalton99a]

9. +1

[tblue37]

4. Concerning inappropriate security clearances:

Last edited Fri Feb 11, 2022, 11:55 AM - Edit history (1)

Link to tweet

Text

Melody speaks gif fluently
@UnpaintedMelody

2019
“25 individuals were given clearances or access to nat’l security info since 2018 despite concerns abt ties to foreign influence, conflicts of interests, questionable/criminal conduct, financial problems,or drug abuse…includes ‘2 senior WH officials’”

[gratuitous]

14. My guess as to the end game on this stunning breach of security

The former guy will simply say that he declassified the documents he stole, and therefore no breach was made.

[tblue37]

27. I believe there is a process involved in declassification. He can't just say, "Olly-Olly-Ox-in Free!

Nor can he just declassify them in his own mind.

[gratuitous]

28. I thought there was a process involved, too

But seeing as how the former guy took every shortcut imaginable (for example, in issuing pardons to his favorites, granting security clearances to his cronies and family members, etc.), he'll probably make the claim that he de-classified all those top secret documents before Biden was sworn in. His flying monkey brigades will rush in to defend the privileges and prerogatives of the Executive (privileges and prerogatives that they would never grant to a Democrat), and flood the zone with "it's not a crime if the president does it."

[area51]

5. More evidence of his dementia, imo. n/t

[crazylikafox]

11. Was just thinking the same thing

And they want to investigate Biden’s mental capacity????

[Beetwasher.]

7. "Putin Will Appreciate This One!" *RIIIIIP*

[tavernier]

12. I have no doubt that many of the decisions Putin makes today

are based on information rump gave him. Perhaps even the standoff in the Ukrainian situation.

[jmowreader]

15. I really want to know who the desk analyst who built Trump's PDBs was

If I would have been Chief of Desk during the Trump Administration, I would have had one simple instruction for my analysts: only put open source material in the PDB. If you don’t find it on a newspaper or on CNN, don’t give it to the president.

There are two reasons for this. One is the security risk. If Trump would have enlisted in the Army, Central Clearance Facility would have denied him clearance based on his financial problems alone. During the 1980s they caught a bunch of cleared US people selling classified information to the government, and financial problems were the primary motivator behind it in almost all cases. The only one I remember who wasn’t driven by money was Jonathan Pollard. The other is Trump really doesn’t have the attention span to handle secret information. You may as well just pull stories out of the Washington Post and not tell him where you got them.

[Deep State Witch]

17. Yep

TFG only cared about what was on Fox Noise rather than actual intelligence.

And yeah - there's no way that he or any member of his family would have gotten a clearance normally.

[Deep State Witch]

16. PDB Rules

I used to work closely with the folks that produced PDB items back when I was in the Deep State. When Obama was President, articles were delivered to him on secure tablets that were reset after each use. Obama would often request more information on specific items of interest. Of course, that set off a mad scramble back to the initial reporter to get more information. It was quite a badge of honor to have your report make it into the PDB. It still is.

When Slobfather came in, the preferred delivery method changed to paper. He was only interested in certain things. You had to condense everything down to one paragraph, no more than 3 sentences. Let me tell ya, it's really tough to condense detailed reports down into 3 sentences! Besides having the attention span of a house fly, TFG only got briefed a couple of times a week. The other Principals - VPOTUS, SECDEF, SECSTATE, etc. got briefed every day.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

20. Probably better that way.

Trump was likely too busy playing with his Diet Coke delivery button to worry about important items like briefings.

I swear, I'm surprised there wasn't a giant fucking playpen in the WH to keep him in and occupied during his term. Or maybe there was and Melania isn't telling anyone...yet.

[Ray Bruns]

21. Maybe a giant mobile with pictures of pornstars would have been better.

[Deminpenn]

26. Thought it was known

That Trump was better at grasping info by hearing or seeing it rather than reading it.

[not a texan]

22. you know he took those 15 boxes to sell the documents later

He knew it would be more difficult to grift once he left the White House so he took those documents to have a source of income by selling out the USA to our foes

[Delphinus]

25. Welcome to DU!

You are probably right - look at how Melania already tried to auction off a hat.

[Efilroft Sul]

23. The media needs to revisit what went into the moving van at the White House on Election Day 2020.

Was Trump already transferring such files to Mar-A-Lago then?

[CaptainTruth]

29. Tom Nichols blocked me on Twitter. Anyone else here?

I still have no idea why, just wondering if he blocked anyone else here on DU.

[tblue37]

30. Nope. I read him regularly. Did you do something, or do you think it was accidental?

[scipan]

32. From what I have witnessed,

he doesn’t take criticism well.