Wednesday, May 24, 2017

National security officials try to accommodate Trump’s attributes

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/national-security-officials-try-accommodate-trumps-attributes
"The week of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, Donald Trump conceded he likes to have short intelligence briefings, with information on national security limited to one page. “I like bullets or I like as little as possible,” he said. Soon after, National Security Council officials said that while Barack Obama liked policy papers that were three to six single-spaced pages, Trump prefers one page, “with lots of graphics and maps.” As Trump prepares for his first overseas trip as president, Reuters reports today on the efforts to prepare a president with Trump’s unique attributes. Conversations with some officials who have briefed Trump and others who are aware of how he absorbs information portray a president with a short attention span. He likes single-page memos and visual aids like maps, charts, graphs and photos. National Security Council officials have strategically included Trump’s name in “as many paragraphs as we can because he keeps reading if he’s mentioned,” according to one source, who relayed conversations he had with NSC officials. I mean, really. What are we even supposed to say at this point? Nearly four months into this presidency, National Security Council officials have apparently learned that Trump is likely to stop reading important materials unless he sees his name, so they write “Trump” more than they’d like to in the hopes of keeping the president’s attention."