He’s like a smart person

Today in Trump:

President-elect Donald J. Trump said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that he did not believe American intelligence assessments that Russia had intervened to help his candidacy, casting blame for the reports on Democrats, who he said were embarrassed about losing to him.

“I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s just another excuse,” Mr. Trump said in the interview, on “Fox News Sunday.” “I don’t believe it.”

Except the intelligence people who made the assessments are civil servants, not political appointments.

He also indicated that as president, he would not take the daily intelligence briefing that President Obama and his predecessors have received. Mr. Trump, who has received the briefing sparingly as president-elect, said that it was often repetitive and that he would take it “when I need it.” He said his vice president, Mike Pence, would receive the daily briefing.

“You know, I’m, like, a smart person,” he said. “I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years.”

Thus demonstrating that he’s not “a smart person.” A genuinely smart person would never say that on national tv on such a subject in such a situation. A genuinely smart person would not refuse to read intelligence briefings, and would not boast of doing so on national tv.

Also, he’s not going to be there for eight years.

He added that he had instructed the officials who give the briefing: “‘If something should change from this point, immediately call me. I’m available on a one-minute’s notice.’”

Oh, how big of him. Of course he’s available on short notice: that’s his job! The level of stupidity is hard to believe.

Mr. Trump’s seeming dismissal of the importance of that daily interaction with intelligence agencies, as well as his claims of politically tainted intelligence reports on Russia, widened a remarkable breach between a president-elect and the agencies he will have to rely on to carry out priorities like fighting terrorism and deterring cyberattacks.

No doubt he’s thinking of it as just more of what he’s used to – he’s The Honcho and everyone else is an undifferentiated mass of underlings, whom he can fire the instant they irritate him.

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