The Moment Trump's Counterterrorism Chief Was Shut Out of the Oval Office 😳
A Trump administration counterterrorism official describes being excluded from briefings after challenging intelligence assessments about Iran that originated from Israeli sources. The official claims there was a culture discouraging bad news and inadequate sourcing transparency for critical national security decisions.
Summary
The speaker, who served as a counterterrorism chief under Trump, discusses tensions within the administration regarding intelligence briefing practices and information flow to the president. According to the account, Susie Wilds created an organizational culture where bringing the president unfavorable information was discouraged, which the speaker claims negatively affected the quality of intelligence reaching decision-makers. The speaker and Tulsi Gabbard (then DNI) were concerned that intelligence briefed to the president lacked proper attribution and context about source bias—particularly regarding Israeli intelligence on Iran. The speaker recounts a specific incident where Israeli-sourced information about Iran was being presented to the president without clear indication that it came from a country with potential interest in military action. When the speaker questioned this in an Oval Office meeting and asked the CIA director for independently verified corroborating information, the director insisted such information existed but could not produce it when asked. Following this confrontation, the speaker was informed they would not be needed at the next briefing and their attendance would only be requested if specific counterterrorism advice was needed.
Key Insights
- Susie Wilds created a culture where bringing the president bad news was not allowed, which affected information flow to the president
- Intelligence being briefed to the president, particularly Israeli information about Iran, was not being properly caveted to show its source country
- The speaker challenged a briefing claiming Israeli-sourced information about Iran was being presented as general intelligence without disclosing the source's potential bias toward military action
- When asked to provide independently verified information corroborating the Iran intelligence, the CIA director claimed such information existed but could not present it
- The speaker was excluded from subsequent Oval Office briefings after questioning the sourcing and verification of Iran intelligence
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] What do you Susie Wilds? >> She created a culture in which bringing the president any bad news was not allowed and this really affected the information flow going to the president. Myself and Tulsi when she was at DNI, we were concerned that a lot of the information that was being given to the president wasn't being caveed properly to say where it came from. Especially a lot of the Israeli information was being briefed [music] to the president like sir this is the intelligence. If we're making a decision on whether or not to go to [music] war, it's critical that the president actually understands, hey, this information came from a country that wants you to go…
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