Indefensible Trump

Hear the alarm. See the siren. Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency and head of the U.S. military’s Cyber Command, on Tuesday told Congress that President Trump has given him no orders to attack Russian election hacking operations at their source.

It is 477 days after the 2016 election, in which the Kremlin interfered in an American presidential contest as never before. The midterms are 251 days away. Yet in a Senate hearing, Rogers — a military man’s bars spread across his chest — calmly rebuked the feds’ response, saying about Russian meddling: “We’re taking steps, but we’re probably not doing enough.”

And this, about the Russians: “They haven’t paid a price at least that’s sufficient to get them to change their behavior.”

And this: “What I see on the Cyber Command side leads me to believe that if we don’t change the dynamic here, that this is going to continue, and 2016 won’t be viewed as isolated.”

The capper, after Sen. Jack Reed asked Rogers whether he had been directed either by Trump or Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis to confront Russian attacks at their point of origination: “No, I have not,” Rogers said, adding, “I haven’t been granted any, you know, additional authorities, capacity and capability, and — no, that’s certainly true.”

Coming from the sitting head of an intelligence agency, this is an extraordinary admission. The commander-in-chief is failing to issue the necessary orders to deter, much less disrupt, intrusions that could compromise the democratic process.

Long ago, Americans had good reason to doubt that Trump took the threat from Russia seriously. First, rejecting the consensus conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies, he denied the Kremlin’s cyberattacks altogether. Then he downplayed the claims, giving credence to Vladimir Putin’s denials.

Even after Congress passed strong sanctions to punish the Kremlin for its meddling, the White House failed to put them in place.

Now, in the grips of furious paranoia about Robert Mueller’s investigation, Trump trains far more fire at Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration than he does on Putin’s hacking squads.

Two years ago, the Kremlin spread disinformation, stole emails from the Democratic National Committee and from Clinton’s campaign chairman, and breached state election systems (while changing no votes).

Yet after a series of scary break-ins, even as the crooks case the joint again, the President is leaving the backdoor unlocked.