Trump vs. the Bounty Hunters
According to an extremely damaging leak—first reported by NYT and then independently corroborated by multiple reputable sources—Trump was briefed—months ago—about the GRU putting out a bounty on American soldiers to encourage Taliban attacks on US troops in Afghanistan, and then did nothing about it save for cozying up even more to Putin.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/u...-bounties.html
Both Trump and his cronies have come out swinging, with increasingly implausible—and increasingly damning—attacks and excuses to justify their inaction. Obv. an enemy doing something like this isn't too outlandish (although this would be a significant escalation) but the inaction—and the lying—is alarming. One excuse they trialed was that nobody who's anybody was actually briefed about this, even though the reporting indicates that it was in the PDB. That implies something extremely disturbing about communication with intelligence services in the Trump admin, and it is so damning that it should be grounds for resignation. Responses from the admin strongly imply that the reporting is substantially accurate, and I wouldn't be surprised if their lies and blame-shifting provoke further leaks. At this point, it seems the Trump admin does not have an adequately functioning relationship with intelligence services, and that's a recipe for disaster.
