Donald J. Trump says he doesn’t need to be briefed daily on national security issues because “like, I’m a smart person.”
The president-elect also says he gets the briefings when “I need it.”
My question is this: Who determines whether Trump “needs” the briefing, the president-elect or the national security team assigned to provide the intelligence information to him?
What appears to be emerging here is an enormous responsibility for Mike Pence, the vice president-elect who happens to have actual government experience as governor of Indiana and before that as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Pence gets the briefings far more frequently than Trump, according to the president-elect. This suggests to me that Pence is preparing to the Trump administrations’ go-to guy on issues relating to national security.
Fighting the Islamic State? Dealing with geopolitical threats in Europe, Asia and Latin America?
Let Mike deal with it. The president is too busy makingĀ America great again.
And I bet you thought no vice president could wield the clout that Dick Cheney did during the George W. Bush administration.