What Happens When Intelligence Agencies Lose Faith in the President?

If bureaucrats restrict the information they share with political leaders, the damage could prove deep and lasting.

American military and intelligence agencies must assume from now on that the president of the United States is a security risk. He cannot be trusted to protect state secrets.

.. Would the president have so abjectly tried to impress representatives of any other country? He blabbed because he bragged, and he bragged because he values Russia’s and Putin’s goodwill so bizarrely much. As the economist Justin Wolfers noted, if officials had not revealed the truth to the media, the Russians would now genuinely have damaging kompromat on Trump

.. consider how little information Trump wants in the first place. He is satisfied with single pagers dotted by colorful bullet points. If that is all he uses, maybe it’s better for everybody to hold back information he could possibly misuse?

Breitbart on Comey Loyalty: Failed to Stop Leaks

“We don’t believe this to be an accurate account,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy press secretary. “The integrity of our law enforcement agencies and their leadership is of the utmost importance to President Trump. He would never even suggest the expectation of personal loyalty, only loyalty to our country and its great people.”

According to the White House, one of the many reasons Comey was fired was because he failed to stop sensitive leaks of information to the media.

Trump and Ryan: Health Bill May Test Marriage of Convenience

“It’s not my bill,” he told CNN, noting that the White House had helped Congress draft it. “It’s our bill.” As if for emphasis, he also noted that he talks to the president almost every day.

.. Hours after the release of a damaging analysis on the health bill from the Congressional Budget Office, the site published leaked audio of Mr. Ryan telling House members last October that he could no longer defend Mr. Trump’s campaign.

The content of the tape was not news; Mr. Ryan’s view at the time was clear, just after the release of the “Access Hollywood” video in which Mr. Trump boasted of sexually assaulting women. But to admirers of Mr. Ryan, the message of the leak was unsubtle.

.. Mr. Trump has also told people that if this effort fails, he will try again in two years.

.. After Mr. Ryan distanced himself in October, Mr. Trump savaged him as a “weak and ineffective leader.”

But by December, the two had reconciled. At a rally together in Wisconsin, Mr. Trump compared Mr. Ryan to “a fine wine” whose “genius” he had grown to appreciate.

Then came the hedge: “Now, if he ever goes against me, I’m not going to say that.”

Divided Media on Michael Flynn: Patriotic Leaks or Political Espionage

In the hours since Michael T. Flynn resigned as national security adviser late Monday, two narratives have emerged.

One, embraced by many in the traditional legacy media, centered on what Mr. Flynn had done that led to his resignation: discussed sanctions against Russia in a conversation with the Russian ambassador, and then misled Vice President Mike Pence about it.

The other, which developed among the more right-leaning news media, focused on the leaks from Washington that had put pressure on Mr. Flynn to step aside, and whether these leaks were intended to damage President Trump.

One narrative holds Mr. Flynn, and others who knew about his discussions, accountable. The other portrays Mr. Flynn more as a victim.

.. The growing division means that some readers are getting their news through an ever-narrowing prism. Americans who get their information predominantly from Breitbart News, a right-wing news and opinion site, for instance, or from the conservative Fox News are getting a very different version of the news from Americans who read The Washington Post or watch CNN.

.. Late Monday night, as the news broke that Mr. Flynn had resigned, news organizations rushed to publish articles.

Not Breitbart.

.. The article also raised questions about how the news media got its information, reinforcing a distrust of the press that Mr. Trump and his administration have assiduously tried to foster.

“The fact that the contents of Flynn’s phone conversation — highly sensitive intelligence — were leaked to the media suggests that someone with access to that information also has a political axe to grind,” the article said.

.. “Some of these leaks have halted a Trump appointment and controversial policies in their tracks,” the article said, “and it’s a lesson showing how whistle-blowers and leaks to the press are vital for democracy.”