This account of the Trump administration’s reaction to Russia’s interference and policies toward Moscow is based on interviews with more than 50 current and former U.S. officials, many of whom had senior roles in the Trump campaign and transition team or have been in high-level positions at the White House or at national security agencies.
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Current and former officials said that his daily intelligence update — known as the president’s daily brief, or PDB — is often structured to avoid upsetting him.
Russia-related intelligence that might draw Trump’s ire is in some cases included only in the written assessment and not raised orally, said a former senior intelligence official familiar with the matter. In other cases, Trump’s main briefer — a veteran CIA analyst — adjusts the order of his presentation and text, aiming to soften the impact.
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[In May, 2017 the Senate passed new Russia sanctions, Trump was "apoplectic," but he had to sign the bill into law, it passed 98-2!]:
“Hey, here are the votes,” aides told the president, according to a second Trump adviser. “If you veto it, they’ll override you and then you’re f---ed and
you look like you’re weak.”
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The reaction from Russia was withering. Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev taunted [Trump]the president in a Facebook post that echoed Trump’s style, saying that
[Trump] had shown “complete impotence, in the most humiliating manner...
[I'm tellin' ya, there really is something sexual to Trump's insecurities: his hands, his "button,"--and the Russians
know it. This is the button they know to push to get to Trump. Illegitimacy, political and personal; being cuckolded, politically and personally, by Russia; impotence, political and physical, humiliation, political and personal. When Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G character
succeeded in fooling Trump into agreeing to an interview Trump tweeted "I don't fall for scams"! Being fooled, deceived, "scammed" is the crux of cuckoldry, it shows you are "weak," "impotent," it is "humiliating." During the campaign
Trump publicly asked the Russians to release damaging information on Hillary Clinton, his campaign was littered from top to bottom with Russian agents, from Manafort, Page, Papadopoulos, Bannon, Flynn, mini-Trump, Trump knowingly and eagerly surrounded himself with Kremlin men. Trump is so adamant in denying all of it now (he did not expect the Russian Connection to result in his "election") because to admit now what he admitted then is to admit to crime
and to admit that he is illegitimate, that he had been "weak," "impotent" without Russian help, and that is "humiliating."]
“If you talk about Russia, meddling, interference — that takes the PDB off the rails,” said a second former senior U.S. intelligence official.
[Trump cannot even talk about it!]
Washington_Post_Dec_14_2017
WASHINGTON — Russia is already meddling in the midterm elections this year, the top American intelligence officials said on Tuesday, warning that Moscow is using a digital strategy to worsen the country’s political and social divisions.
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“We expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false-flag personas, sympathetic spokespeople and other means of influence to try to exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States,” Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee...,testifying alongside Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director; Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director; and other leading intelligence officials.
“Throughout the entire community, we have not seen any evidence of any significant change from last year."
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Mr. Trump has not directed his intelligence officials to specifically combat Russian interference, they said...
Russia appears eager to spread information — real and fake — that deepens political divisions. Bot armies promoted partisan causes on social media...
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The bots have also sought to portray the F.B.I. and Justice Department as infected by partisan bias, said Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee.
“Other threats to our institutions come from right here at home,” he said. “There have been some, aided and abetted by Russian internet bots and trolls, who have attacked the basic integrity of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department. This is a dangerous trend.”
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Right now, Mr. Pompeo said, Russia is trying to focus on what are known as influence operations — using social media and other platforms to spread favorable messages — not hacking.
Mr. Coats called Moscow’s meddling “pervasive.”
“The Russians have a strategy that goes well beyond what is happening in the United States,” he said. “While they have historically tried to do these types of things, clearly in 2016 they upped their game. They took advantage, a sophisticated advantage of social media. They are doing that not only in the United States but doing it throughout Europe and perhaps elsewhere.”
White House Has Given No Orders to Counter Russian Meddling, N.S.A. Chief Says
WASHINGTON — Faced with unrelenting interference in [the U.S.] election systems...Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the departing head of the National Security Agency and the military’s Cyber Command, said that he was using the authorities he had to combat the Russian attacks. But under questioning during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he acknowledged that the White House had not asked his agencies...to find ways to counter Moscow, or granted them new authorities to do so.
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Admiral Rogers’s testimony was the second time this month that a senior American intelligence official had said that Russia’s efforts to meddle in American elections did not end in 2016, and that the Trump administration had taken no extraordinary steps to stop them...all the intelligence chiefs said [on Feb. 13] they had not been expressly asked by the White House to find a way to punish Russia for its efforts.
The comments by Admiral Rogers on Tuesday reflected what appears to be a widening gap between President Trump and the intelligence agencies he runs. While [Trump] has mocked the notion of Russian meddling in the election he won, American intelligence officials are convinced of it, and they believe Russia is now looking to interfere in the midterm elections in November.
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Asked during the [Feb. 13] hearing whether he had the authority and the ability to disrupt the Russian attacks “where they originate,” Admiral Rogers replied, “I don’t have the day-to-day authority to do that.”
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“Have you been directed to do so?” Mr. Reed added.
“No, I have not,” Admiral Rogers said.
NSA Chief Says Trump Hasn’t Ordered Agency to Disrupt Russian Hacking
Adm. Mike Rogers tells Senate panel agency isn’t targeting ‘the origin of these attacks’
Trump hasn’t ordered Russian meddling stopped at source
WASHINGTON — A top intelligence official says President Donald Trump has not ordered the U.S. Cyber Command to disrupt Russian cyber threats where they originate.
Director Mike Rogers, who directs both the cyber command and the National Security Agency, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the president or defense secretary would need to give him the authority to disrupt the threats at their source.
Washington_Post_today
