I don't need a National Security Council. “In effect, and often literally,” he wrote, “the president said: I don't need that to be done. Trump has no interest in listening to national security expertsĪccording to Mr Woodward, Mr Coates said the greatest threat posed to the US national security apparatus is that Mr Trump wanted to ignore any process that utilised the government’s many career experts.
According to US law, it can only be bestowed upon military personnel for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty”. Mr Woodward added that Mr Trump also told others he believed the California Republican – who has never served in the US Armed Forces – deserved the Medal of Honor, which is highest decoration a US service member can be awarded. He then suggested to Mr Trump that if he were to contact the ODNI to verify information provided by Mr Nunes, it would “put in a better position” because Coats’s office could “assess whether or not what has been said is backed up by the evidence”.īut Mr Trump, Mr Woodward writes, was uninterested in such things, and instead responded: “Devin Nunes is the most courageous person in town.” Devin has told you something that is not true,” Mr Coats said, according to Mr Woodward. But he passes information to you that turns out to be false. “Mr president, I know Devin Nunes is trying to be doing everything he can to support you.
The oft-repeated allegations that “unmasking” was done improperly on the orders of Obama administration officials, although baseless, have made up the bulk of the amorphous conspiracy theory Trumpworld figures have dubbed “Obamagate”, and which Mr Trump – without evidence – has called the “greatest political crime in American history”.īut when then-director of national intelligence Dan Coats tried setting the record straight on unmasking – which is a common occurrence in intelligence collection and analysis – Mr Trump was not receptive to the facts. Unmasking is the process by which high-government officials can request to have the names of Americans caught on foreign surveillance – which are normally “masked” to protect privacy – revealed in order to get a full picture of the conversation being reviewed.
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