Laughter curdles as Trump’s assault on U.S. intelligence agencies mimics satire

For some savage amusement, I recommend an article in the Onion headlined, “FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States.”

The plotters advise their followers to stand aside and “savor the spectacle” as the U.S. destroys itself. What makes the satire so biting, of course, is that the spectacle is real and unfolding so fast that we can barely track the mounting damage.

In the same week he savaged the U.S. economy with tariff madness, President Donald Trump inflicted another blow in his relentless assault on America’s intelligence agencies, which is putting the country at great risk.

As if he were following the script from the Onion, the destroyer-in-chief fired Gen. Timothy Haugh, the highly respected head of America’s cyber defenses, just as the country is facing the most serious, sustained, and sophisticated cyberattacks ever from China, Russia, and others.

Trump did not sack the general due to any malfeasance, but because he was advised to do so by far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, a Trump promoter who has access to the president’s office and his ear.

» READ MORE: With tariffs and failed Ukraine ‘peace’ talks, Trump is the emperor who has no clothes | Trudy Rubin

Haugh’s dismissal comes as Trump’s minions have been busy slashing funds and staff for U.S. cyber defenses, cybersecurity programs, and key intelligence agencies. Conspiracy theorists might almost surmise external enemies were coordinating their efforts with the Trump team. Although I don’t believe this to be true, the effect is the same: America’s security is under attack from without and within.

Before we get to the “why” of Trump’s deep disdain for U.S. intelligence experts, let’s return to the Haugh case, which sums up perfectly this administration’s disastrous approach to security. The general, who headed the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, had a stellar career and was praised by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“If decades of experience in uniform isn’t enough to lead the N.S.A. but amateur isolationists can hold senior policy jobs at the Pentagon, then what exactly are the criteria for working on this administration’s national security staff?” former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) asked in comments to the New York Times.

But we know what “the criteria” are, Sen. McConnell.

Loomer — who believes 9/11 was “an inside job,” yet is called “a great patriot” by Trump — denounced Haugh for “disloyalty” because he was appointed by Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump despises Milley and calls him a “traitor” because he has criticized the president for politicizing the military.

In other words, the only criterion the president requires, as we know, is abject loyalty. And Loomer played that card to turn Trump against Haugh, even though Milley’s position meant his approval was necessary for numerous appointments, not just the general. On such a ludicrous basis — at the behest of a fool — did the commander in chief cashier a top military officer in a critical position with skills that are desperately needed.

Too bad McConnell didn’t have the guts to shout out his concerns about Trump’s well-known preference for loyalty over professional ability before the election of 2024.

More to the point was the statement of Virginia Democrat Mark Warner, ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who asked, “At a time when the United States is facing unprecedented cyber threats, as the Salt Typhoon cyberattack from China has so clearly underscored, how does firing [Haugh] make Americans any safer?”

Warner was referring to a massive hack by Chinese intelligence last year into more than a dozen U.S. telecommunications companies that gave Beijing unprecedented access to millions of calls and text messages in the Washington, D.C., area, including phones of candidate Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, as well as the Kamala Harris campaign.

And Beijing has acknowledged it was behind a series of serious cyberattacks against U.S. infrastructure, such as ports, water utilities, and airports, over several years.

Haugh was deeply involved in pushing back against such cyber hacking, including counterstrikes on Russian hackers and intelligence. One must ask whether that might also have contributed to his dismissal.

» READ MORE: Signalgate leak reveals a worse intelligence disaster than most Americans realize | Trudy Rubin

Indeed, according to the New York Times, Trump has already begun to dismantle federal agencies and programs that monitor foreign influence and disinformation. He resents the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency because CISA declared the 2020 election was one of the best run in U.S. history — unequivocally rebutting Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud costing him the race. CISA’s contracts with state and local elections officials, vital to helping keep elections secure, are being canceled.

This brings us to the huge question of why the president is imitating the Onion and diminishing U.S. security by gutting its intelligence agencies and firing its best-qualified security officials.

To answer Warner, Trump does not care about making Americans safer. His actions show he cares only about devotion to himself. He considers the intel agencies as disloyal because past investigative results displeased him. He presumes his instincts can substitute for briefings and expertise. (Moreover, he has no interest in tracking Russia’s malevolent intentions, since he considers Vladimir Putin a trustworthy pal.)

Thus, Trump has appointed the least-qualified bunch of toadies for top security positions of any president in living memory.

He still refuses to hold anyone accountable for Signalgate, a scandal in which his national security adviser and defense secretary shared details of an upcoming U.S. military strike in Yemen on an unsecured chat app and private phones. All while inadvertently admitting a journalist to the text exchange. This laxness with operational security is forcing once-close allies to ask whether they dare share critical intelligence with Washington any longer.

Trump has tasked his CIA Director John Ratcliffe to shift the agency’s resources away from critical overseas missions to fighting drug cartels, as if this were America’s greatest security threat.

His openly pro-Putin director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has established a team to investigate “weaponization” across the 18 spy agencies she supervises and make heads roll.

And so the White House blithely stumbles toward the crisis described in the Onion, in which warnings of a domestic or foreign threat will come too late or go unheeded:

“Sadly, al-Qaeda [or Russia or China, etc.] has us right where they want us,” the official added, “and at this point, I fear it is too late to do anything about it.”

“Responding to the allegations, a spokesperson for al-Qaeda reportedly confirmed the terror group’s plot and praised the American people as martyrs of the highest order.”

Martyrs — unless the public forces enough sane leaders to wake up — to the ego of Trump.