‘Putin knows Trump can be played’ – former CIA chief
DONALD TRUMP poses a threat to American national security because he is vulnerable to being “played” by Russia, two former intelligence chiefs warned yesterday.
Their comments came after Mr Trump tried to backtrack on his claim that he believed Vladimir Putin’s denials that Russia did not meddle in last year’s American election.
John Brennan, former director of the CIA, and James Clapper, former director of the National Security Agency, condemned his refusal to push back hard against the Russian president and his role in trying to sway the outcome of the election.
Mr Brennan told CNN’s ‘State of the Union’: “I think it demonstrates to Mr Putin that Donald Trump can be played by foreign leaders who are going to appeal to his ego and try to play upon his insecurities, which is very, very worrisome from a national security standpoint.”
The American president has been dogged by questions about the Russia scandal during his five-nation visit to Asia. On Saturday, Mr Trump said he accepted the sincerity of Mr Putin’s repeated denials.
“Every time he sees me, he says: ‘I didn’t do that.’ And I believe, I really believe, that when he tells me that, he means it,” he told reporters on board Air Force One.
Later that day, he tried to clarify his remarks, insisting he did trust his intelligence agencies which had come to a different conclusion.
“I believe that [Mr Putin] feels that he and Russia did not meddle in the election,” Mr Trump said at a news conference after landing in Vietnam. “As to whether I believe it, I’m with our agencies. As currently led by fine people, I believe very much in our intelligence agencies.”
He also said he did not believe Mr Putin was personally involved and lashed out at former heads of US intelligence agencies – including Mr Brennan and Mr Clapper – calling them “political hacks”.
The CIA and other agencies have presented evidence that Russian officials, directed by Mr Putin, tried to help Mr Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. A federal investigation into whether Mr Trump’s team colluded with that effort has already led to charges against three members of the campaign.
But former senior intelligence officials said they were mystified about Mr Trump’s failure to take a tougher line.
Mr Clapper told CNN: “Putin is committed to undermining our system, our democracy and our whole process. To try to paint it in any other way is, I think, astounding and poses a peril to this country.”
Mr Trump arrived in the Philippines yesterday on the final leg of his trip.
The US president has previously praised the country’s violent war on drugs, despite allegations of widespread extra-judicial killings.
His host, Rodrigo Duterte, the country’s president, has sometimes been called the “Trump of the East” for his brash, no-holds-barred style.
Mr Trump has frequently been at odds with Asian and Pacific leaders who are forging ahead with free-trade deals. Hours before they were due to meet, Mr Duterte delivered another snub, casting further doubt on American economic leadership in the region.
“Today, China is the number one economic power, and we have to be friends,” he told a business conference in Manila.
Mr Trump set out a strong, “America First” message on trade during his time in Vietnam, saying the US would not tolerate chronic trade abuses and would insist on fair and equal policies.
He emphasised that Washington wanted to negotiate bilateral trade agreements during an economic summit in the city of Da Nang, even as Asian and Pacific leaders pressed ahead with plans for a successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership after Mr Trump withdrew the US from the free-trade deal.
He paid tribute to his hosts, describing Vietnam as “one of the great miracles of the world” during a state banquet in Hanoi.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump resorted again to exchanging schoolyard taunts with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.
In a response to North Korea calling Mr Trump’s speech in South Korea “reckless remarks by an old lunatic”, Mr Trump tweeted from Hanoi yesterday morning: “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat’?”
Mr Trump went on to say sarcastically, “Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend – and maybe someday that will happen!” (© Daily Telegraph, London)