Outgoing CIA chief ’s parting shot at Trump

‘Watch what you say about Russia’

THE outgoing CIA director yesterday warned Donald Trump to watch his mouth – especially when talking about Vladimir Putin.

John Brennan said the president-elect did not understand the threat that Russia posed.

He warned Mr Trump to stop ‘talking and tweeting’ and said that being so off the cuff was bad for national security.

Mr Trump has been hitting out at US intelligence agencies for weeks, repeatedly attacking them in posts on Twitter.

Last week he criticised them over the publication of a ‘dirty dossier’ compiled by ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele. It claimed the Kremlin had been involved in

‘Impact could be profound’

his presidential campaign and Russia had compromising footage of him with prostitutes.

Mr Trump’s praise of Russia has sparked alarm among British intelligence services. He said last week that he was not opposed to lifting sanctions if Russia was ‘really helping us’.

He also said that, once he has been sworn in, meeting the Russian president was ‘absolutely fine with me’.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, a show Mr Trump often watches, Mr Brennan said: ‘Spontaneity is not something that protects national security interests and so therefore when he speaks or when he reacts, just make sure he understands that the implica- tions and impact on the United States could be profound.’

He called for Mr Trump to be ‘very, very careful’ about cosying up to Russia. Mr Brennan said: ‘I think [Mr Trump] has to be mindful that he does not have a full appreciation and understanding of what the implications are of going down that road.

‘Now that he’s going to have an opportunity to do something for our national security as opposed to talking and tweeting, he’s going to have tremendous responsibility to make sure that US and national security interests are protected.’

At a press conference last week Mr Trump, whose inauguration is on Friday, likened his treatment by the intelligence agencies to being in Nazi Germany.

Mr Brennan called the comparison ‘outrageous’.

He said: ‘The world is watching now what Trump says and listening very carefully. If he doesn’t have confidence in the intelligence community, what signal does that send to our partners and allies, as well as our adversaries? It’s more than just about Mr Trump.’

It was claimed yesterday that Mr Trump is planning a summit with Mr Putin weeks after becoming president as he seeks to improve relations with the Kremlin. He is said to want to meet the Russian president in a similar arrangement to Ronald Reagan’s Cold War summit with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986.

Mr Trump is said to be eyeing Icelandic capital Reykjavik – where Mr Reagan and Mr Gorbachev met – as a possible location. But Mr Trump’s spokesman Sean Spicer yesterday said claims that he wanted to meet Mr Putin on his first foreign trip as president were ‘100 per cent false’.

The Sunday Times reported that, according to a source in the Trump camp, the summit was ‘on the cards’ and the Russians were ‘keen on it’.