Former intelligence officials worry Trump will try to politicize and weaponize CIA [View all]
Source: NBC News
Nov. 8, 2024, 5:00 AM EST
At the end of his first term in office, then-President Donald Trump sought to install Kash Patel, a hard-line MAGA loyalist, as deputy CIA director. But the head of the agency at the time, Gina Haspel, a career intelligence officer, threatened to resign in protest, and the appointment was scuttled.
Now, four years later, Patel is considered a possible pick for CIA director or another high-level national security post in a second Trump administration. And there likely will be no one to stand in his way this time.
Patel is one of several fiercely loyal political allies who President-elect Trump is considering to oversee the country’s national security. In his first term in office, Trump frequently clashed with his deputies and top officials, who he came to view as insufficiently loyal to his agenda.
This time, the president-elect is keen to fill his administration with people who will carry out his decisions without question, according to sources familiar with the transition process.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/former-cia-officials-worry-trump-politicize-weaponize-intelligence-age-rcna179024
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