On his first full day in the White House, President Trump went to the CIA presumably to try and offer an olive branch to members of the intelligence community he often maligned over their conclusions that Russia had conspired to influence the U.S. elections.
Instead, he falsely denied that he had ever criticized the agency, falsely inflated the crowd size at his inauguration on Friday, attacked the media and told intelligence officers gathered to, “Trust me. I’m like a smart person.”
Humble, too.
It was a rambling speech that was reminiscent of many of his campaign rallies….”There is nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and the CIA than Donald Trump,” the president boasted, referring to himself in the third person.
He said that the agency sometimes hadn’t gotten the backing they deserved from the White House, and promised that “you’re going to get so much backing, maybe you’re going to say, ‘please don’t give us so much backing'” — adapting a line he said many times during the campaign.
Oh, that sounds so much like a smart person.
Allso notable: The Trump team bussed in a bunch of people for the event, which is why there were reports of cheering at an anti-media statement and of an ovation at the end. After being on the receiving end of months of attacks from Trump, the sense I get is that most in the intelligence community hate his everloving guts. Slowly, he is unifying the nation.