Advice<\/p>\n
Dan Coats, seventy-five, has been in public service his entire adult life.\u00a0 He served in the Army right out of college, followed by law school.\u00a0\u00a0He went to work for Congressman Dan Quayle in 1976, and ran and won Quayle\u2019s vacant seat in 1980.\u00a0 A Congressman until 1989, he then ran for the Senate, and served twice, first until 1999, then a second term from 2011 to last year.\u00a0In between he served as President Bush\u2019s ambassador to Germany.<\/p>\n
He now serves President Trump as the Cabinet level Director of National Intelligence.\u00a0 The DNI is the chief of the United States intelligence gathering agencies and heads the sixteen-member US Intelligence Community.\u00a0He, along with National Security Advisor John Bolton, is a key advisor to the President on intelligence matters, and responsible for the President\u2019s daily intelligence brief.<\/p>\n
Coats with his vast government experience is considered one of the \u201cveterans\u201d in the White House, along with Chief of Staff John Kelly and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.\u00a0 I intend no disrespect by the term \u201cveteran;\u201d it’s simply that these Presidential advisors are among the most experienced in a White House where few, including the President, have government or political expertise.<\/p>\n
The President of the United States is under no obligation to listen to his advisors.\u00a0 They are not elected by the people:\u00a0 only the President has placed his name on the national ballot.\u00a0 They serve, \u201c\u2026at the pleasure of the President.\u201d\u00a0 There is a famous Abraham Lincoln story, where at a cabinet meeting discussing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln took a vote.\u00a0 The \u201cvote\u201d was the entire cabinet against the Proclamation, \u201cnay,\u201d and Lincoln for it, \u201caye.\u201d\u00a0 The \u201caye\u2019s\u201d have it was Lincoln\u2019s response.<\/p>\n
But we would hope that any leader would try to get the best advice available before making a momentous decision.\u00a0 Lincoln may have gone against his cabinet\u2019s advice, but he asked their views.\u00a0Particularly with the current President, who\u2019s skill sets are in business and finance rather than the nuances of foreign policy, we hope he would turn to the \u201cold hands\u201d he has chosen.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump had a very difficult week as President. \u00a0His meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday followed a rough NATO meeting. As tough as Mr. Trump was on the NATO leaders, our allies, he appeared weak and vacillating in front of the Russian leader.\u00a0 He agreed that Putin was right and the US Intelligence agencies were wrong about Russian involvement in the 2016 election, and he seriously considered turning former US diplomats over to Russia for questioning.\u00a0 It is unknown what informal agreements he made during his two-hour private discussion with Putin.\u00a0 When he returned to the US, he spent the next few days trying to put out the fires he started.<\/p>\n
After this fiasco, it would be reasonable for the President to regroup, get advice from his counselors, and prepare a new strategy.\u00a0 He obviously did not.<\/p>\n
Over the past few years, it has become tradition for the US leaders of national security \u00a0to meet with reporters, industry, and others at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado.\u00a0 This serves as a way to informally communicate US intelligence goals, and as a think-tank for future choices.\u00a0\u00a0 US intelligence leaders often go, both to get their ideas out, and also to make informal contacts with industry and the media.\u00a0 And, Aspen is nice this time of year.<\/p>\n
Former leaders this year include Michael Chertoff (Homeland Security), Tony Blinken and Wendy Sherman (State Department), and John McLaughlin (CIA).\u00a0 Current serving leaders include Vincent Brooks (US Forces Commander, Korea), Mark Esper (Army Secretary), and Adam Schiff (US Congress).\u00a0The \u201cheadliners\u201d from the Trump Administration were:\u00a0 Director Coats, FBI Director Chris Wray, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.<\/p>\n
Dan Coats was on the hot seat.\u00a0 He had made it clear that the US Intelligence Agencies stood by their conclusion that Russia had attacked the US electoral system in 2016, despite the President\u2019s denial in Helsinki.\u00a0 As Mr. Trump tried to walk back his statement on Tuesday and Wednesday, he and Coats supposedly communicated about the conflicting views.\u00a0 Trump tried to agree with the Intelligence conclusion, though he was unable to make that firm commitment in public.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, in a public interview with veteran NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell, Coats made it clear that his current job \u201cwasn\u2019t fun.\u201d\u00a0 It was a huge challenge, one that he gave him great satisfaction, he said. The DNI allowed him to serve his country, \u00a0and try to accomplish the daily mission of keeping us safe.<\/p>\n
It was with utter surprise then that the DNI was informed by Mitchell of the Trump Administration \u00a0invitation to Vladimir Putin to meet in Washington in the fall.\u00a0 His reaction was clear:\u00a0 he was completely in the dark about the plan.<\/p>\n
President Trump doesn\u2019t have to take anyone\u2019s advice.\u00a0 He has made a reputation of leading with \u201chis gut,\u201d and it told him to get the Putin invitation out in the middle of the Coats’ interview.\u00a0 But would it be too much for him to at least get the opinions of the leaders he chose for their wisdom?\u00a0 In the highest stakes game of international relations, there is nothing as dangerous as an \u201call-knowing rookie,\u201d especially one who refuses to even ask.<\/p>\n
It made for another bad day for the President.<\/p>\n
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