John Brennan served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from March 2013 to January 2017.
My first visit to the Oval Office came in October 1990, when I was a 35-year-old CIA officer. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait two months
before, and President George H.W. Bush wanted to discuss the
implications of a U.S.-led military coalition that would ultimately push
the Iraqis out.
I remember the
nervousness I felt when I entered that room and met a president of the
United States for the first time. By the time the meeting ended, his
intellectual curiosity, wisdom, affability and intense interest in
finding the best policy course to protect and promote U.S. interests
were abundantly evident.
Over the next
quarter-century, I returned to the Oval Office several hundred times
during the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush
and Barack Obama. The jitters that accompanied my first Oval Office
visit dissipated over time, but the respect, awe and admiration I held
for the office of the presidency and the incumbents never waned. The
presidents I directly served were not perfect, and I didn’t agree with
all of their policy choices. But I never doubted that each treated their
solemn responsibility to lead our nation with anything less than the
seriousness, intellectual rigor and principles that it deserved. Many
times, I heard them dismiss the political concerns of their advisers,
saying, “I don’t care about my politics, it’s the right thing to do.”
The esteem with which I held the presidency was
dealt a serious blow when Donald Trump took office. Almost immediately, I
began to see a startling aberration from the remarkable, though human,
presidents I had served. Mr. Trump’s lifelong preoccupation with
aggrandizing himself seemed to intensify in office, and he quickly
leveraged his 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. address and his Twitter handle to
burnish his brand and misrepresent reality.
Presidents
throughout the years have differed in their approaches to policy, based
on political platforms, ideologies and individual beliefs. Mr. Trump,
however, has shown highly abnormal behavior by lying routinely to the
American people without compunction, intentionally fueling divisions in
our country and actively working to degrade the imperfect but critical
institutions that serve us.
Although appalling,
those actions shouldn’t be surprising. As was the case throughout his
business and entertainment careers, Mr. Trump charts his every move
according to a calculus of how it will personally help or hurt him. His
strategy is to undercut real, potential and perceived opponents; his
focus is to win at all costs, irrespective of truth, ethics, decency and
— many would argue — the law.
His disparagement of institutions is
designed to short-circuit legitimate law enforcement investigations,
intelligence assessments and media challenges that threaten his
interests. His fear of the special counsel’s work is especially
palpable, as is his growing interest in destroying its mandate.
For more than three decades, I observed and analyzed
the traits and tactics of corrupt, incompetent and narcissistic foreign
officials who did whatever they thought was necessary to retain power.
Exploiting the fears and concerns of their citizenry, these demagogues
routinely relied on lies, deceit and suppression of political opposition
to cast themselves as populist heroes and to mask self-serving
priorities. By gaining control of intelligence and security services,
stifling the independence of the judiciary and discrediting a free
press, these authoritarian rulers followed a time-tested recipe for how
to inhibit democracy’s development, retard individual freedoms and
liberties, and reserve the spoils of corrupt governance for themselves
and their ilk. It never dawned on me that we could face such a
development in the United States.
On the
international front, Mr. Trump pursues policies that are rooted in
uninformed campaign promises, a determination to upend actions of his
predecessors and an aversion to multilateral engagements. His ad hoc and
frequently impulsive approach to national security is short-sighted and
dangerous, as allies and partners are left uncertain about U.S.
strategy and objectives.
The impact of the
Trump presidency will be felt for many years to come. Most worrisome is
that his use of falsehoods, his mean-spirited and malicious behavior,
and his self-absorption will be emulated by many young Americans —
indeed, young people globally — who look to the president of the United
States as a role model.
The damage also will be felt by the millions of Americans who believe in
Mr. Trump because of their concern about being left behind in a rapidly
changing globalized world. These Americans have a legitimate gripe that
politicians and political parties of all stripes have failed to deliver
on the promise that America is the land of opportunity for all,
irrespective of race, creed or place of residence. At a time when
deep-seated fears of socioeconomic and cultural change need to be
addressed honestly and without prejudice, Mr. Trump grandstands like a
snake-oil salesman, squandering his formidable charisma and
communication skills in favor of ego, selfishness and false promises.
Many have condemned my public criticism of Mr.
Trump, arguing that as a former CIA director, I should bite my tongue.
My criticisms, however, are not political; I have never been and will
never be a partisan. I speak out for the simple reason that Mr. Trump is
failing to live up to the standards that we should all expect of a
president.
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