Washington – President Donald Trump’s intelligence chief explores the means to reorganize his routine intelligence briefing in order to strengthen his confidence in the equipment and make him more aligned on how he likes to consume information, according to five people with direct knowledge of the discussions.
As part of this effort, the director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has requested ideas of current and former intelligence officials on the measures it could take to adapt the briefing, known as the president’s Daily Brief, or PDB, to Trump’s interests and political habits.
One idea that has been discussed is perhaps to create a video version of the PDB that seems and to feel like a Fox News program, four of the people with direct knowledge of discussions said.
Currently, the PDB is a digital document created daily for the president and the main members of the cabinet and the advisers which includes written text, as well as graphics and images. The material that goes into the classified briefing and how it is presented can shape the decision of a president.
According to his public schedule, since his inauguration, Trump has taken the PDB 14 times, or on average less than once a week, which is less often than his recent predecessors – including himself during his first mandate. An analysis of their public hours during this same period – of their inauguration in May during their first year of power – shows that former President Joe Biden received 90 PDB; Trump received 55; And former President Barack Obama received 63.
People with direct knowledge of PDB discussions said Gabbard thinks that the rate could be a reflection of Trump’s preference to consume information in a different form from that of the official briefing, as well as his distrust of intelligence, who dates back to his first mandate, when he accused them of spying on his 2016 campaign. would not do it.
Asked how, DNI’s press secretary, Olivia Coleman, said in a statement: “This so-called report” is laughable, absurd and false. From the real mode of false news, NBC publishes another false history of anonymous provenance. ”
A familiar source with the internal deliberations of the DNI said that during the Gabbard confirmation process in the Senate, “there was a bipartite consensus according to which the PDB needed a serious reform. Dni Gabbard leads this reform and guarantees that the president receives relevant timely intelligence reports. ”
In a statement, the White House spokesman Davis Ingle described this report as “defamation of unnamed sources” and said: “President Trump gathered a world-class intelligence team with which he is constantly communicating and receives updates in real time on all urgent national security problems.
It is not uncommon for the PDB to be adapted to individual presidents. The presentation of the PDB was adjusted to Trump during his first mandate to include fewer text and more images and graphics. Gabbard discussed the greater changes, according to people with direct knowledge of the discussions. We do not know how far her effort will go, but people with direct knowledge of it said that she had entertained unconventional ideas.
An idea that has been discussed is to transform the PDB so that it reflects a dissemination of Fox News, according to four people with direct knowledge of the discussions. As part of this concept as it was discussed, the office of the National Intelligence Director could hire a producer of Fox News to produce it and one of the personalities of the network to present it; Trump, a Fox News enthusiast, could then watch the PDB broadcast when he wanted it.
A new PDB could include not only graphics and images, but also cards with animated representations of explosive bombs, similar to a video game, another of people with knowledge of discussions.
“The problem with Trump is that he does not read,” said another person with direct knowledge of PDB discussions. “It is broadcast all the time.”
People with direct knowledge of PDB discussions spoke of the state of anonymity because they were not allowed to discuss internal deliberations.
US intelligence officials have created videos in the past to present information to the presidents, including profiles of world leaders, for example. Hollywood legend Charlton Heston Educational films narrated on highly classified subjects for the Department of Energy and American intelligence and the military community. The films included information on nuclear weapons, forcing Heston to have the highest relevant security authorization possible for at least six years.
Former intelligence officials who worked in the first Trump administration said Trump preferred to be verbally informed and ask questions but would not bind memos or other long written documents.
During Trump’s first term, the PDB evolved into an overview of a subject page with a set of graphics, presented verbally by an intelligence officer about twice a week, according to a history of presidential briefs by John Helgerson.
To accommodate Trump’s style and preferences, vice-president Mike Pence told Briefers to “rely on the cards”, according to Helgerson’s book.
But there was no PDB presentation in broadcast style or cable. Although the PDB has gone through various transformations under different presidents since its creation in 1946, it was largely in a written format which was then informed of the president verbally.
Gabbard also discussed the adaptation of some of the PDB content to Trump’s interests, such as the inclusion of more information on economic and commercial issues and a less common concentration on the war in Ukraine, according to three people with direct knowledge of PDB discussions.
Understanding information on the issues that the president cares in particular is not unusual. Biden’s PDB included gender and climate change problems, one of these three people said.
“You are changing with the administration’s priorities,” said this person, adding that because of Trump’s distrust of the intelligence community, making him adopt the PDB “is a very difficult fight.”
As national intelligence director, Gabbard supervises and approves the PDB. A large staff of analysts and other employees of the CIA compiles the PDB, creating text, graphics and detailed videos based on the latest intelligences collected by American spy agencies.
NBC News reported that Gabbard was planning to move the office, which is preparing the CIA headquarters to Langley, Virginia, at the Office of the National Intelligence Director a few kilometers in McLean – apparently to strengthen the role of his office in the presentation of intelligence to the President.
The ODNI should enlarge its staff and acquire digital tools and other infrastructure to assemble the PDB, one of the five familiar people with the discussions said.
If the PDB was to be converted into video for Trump, it would always be provided in something like its current form to other senior administration officials who receive it, said this person.
Because he took the PDB just less than once a week on average, Trump is currently receiving a product that one of the people familiar with PDB discussions described as the “best of strengths” last week, in addition to something new that day.
The discussions on the potential modifications of the PDB are found in the midst of the questions on the question of whether Gabbard can politicize the intelligence process, in particular after his chief of staff, Joe Kent, asked analysts to revise an assessment on a venezuelan criminal gang who seemed to undermine the immigration policy of Trump, according to two sources with knowledge.
Two senior officials who managed the National Intelligence Council were recently dismissed after the initial intelligence assessment contradicted Trump’s claims according to which the Cartel of Tren of Aragua operated under the direction of the Venezuela regime, led by Nicolás Maduro. Trump cited allegations on the alleged relationship of the regime with the cartel as justification to invoke a law of 1798 rarely used, the law on extraterrestrial enemies, to expel people suspected of being gang members without regular procedure.
It is common for intelligence leaders to put their own staff in place, but the decision concerned the Democrats of Congress who have already questioned some of Gabbard’s efforts to have a stricter control over what intelligence reaches Trump.
“In the absence of evidence to justify layoffs, the workforce can only conclude that their job depends on the production of analyzes that align with the president’s political agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical,” said representative Jim Himes du Connecticut, the best democrat of the Chamber’s intelligence committee, in a press release.
An administration official previously declared to NBC News that the two officials had been dismissed “because they were unable to provide impartial information”.