Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is reportedly trying to find new ways to get Donald Trump to pay attention to his routine intelligence briefings since the president “doesn’t read.”
According to NBC News, Gabbard has turned to current and former intelligence officials for advice on how to get Trump, 79, to focus on the President’s Daily Briefs, or PDBs, five people with knowledge of the discussions told the outlet.
The PDB is a digital document with written text and pictures, but as one insider told NBC, “The problem with Trump is that he doesn’t read. He’s on broadcast all the time.”
In order to get Trump’s attention, one idea Gabbard and her team is reportedly considering is to add “animated representations of exploding bombs, similar to a video game” to the PDB and hire a Fox News producer to produce it and a host to present it. That way the briefing would have the look and feel of a Fox News show and Trump could watch it whenever he wants.
NBC noted that would involve granting the Fox News team security clearance to access classified information.
Intelligence officials similarly struggled to brief Trump during his first term. Trump’s lack of focus then ultimately forced officials to change the PDB to a one-page outline that was presented verbally by an intelligence official twice a week, according to former CIA officer John Helgerson.
In a statement DNI Press Secretary Olivia Coleman said, “This so-called ‘reporting’ is laughable, absurd, and flat-out false. In true fake news fashion, NBC is publishing yet another anonymously sourced false story.”
The White House similarly dismissed the story as “libelous garbage from unnamed sources.”
“President Trump has assembled a world-class intelligence team who he is constantly communicating with and receiving real time updates on all pressing national security issues,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said. “Ensuring the safety and security of the American people is President Trump’s number one priority.”
