Donald Trump has been president (for the second time) for more than 100 days. In that time, he has reportedly shown a troubling lack of regard for his daily intelligence briefings.
Trump has reportedly sat for just 12 “daily” briefings since his second term began in January—an eyebrow-raising drop from the already infrequent schedule of his first time in office, POLITICO reports.
Despite needing to navigate high-stakes diplomacy with the likes of Russia, China, and Iran, the commander-in-chief has largely ghosted the intelligence community’s most critical briefing tool.
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POLITICO reports that Trump received just two in-person intelligence updates per month in the first quarter of 2025 before shifting to a weekly briefing schedule in April. During his first term, Trump averaged two per week, the same number as Biden did during his administration.
“It’s sadly clear that President Trump doesn’t value the expertise of and dangerous work performed by our intelligence professionals each and every day, and unfortunately, it leaves the American people increasingly vulnerable to threats we ought to see coming,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
While Trump’s aides insist he remains fully informed through ad-hoc calls and top-level briefings, critics say these informal meetings lack the hard truths and nuance that trained intelligence briefers provide—especially as their insights often conflict with White House narratives.
Adding to the concern is the claim that Trump is known for not reading accompanying briefing documents, known as “the book,” preferring instead to rely on simple graphics or direct summaries. His national security team has also been plunged into chaos following the recent ousting of Mike Waltz as national security adviser.
A weakening of national security services has been the fear of analysts for months. Just last week, former CIA Intelligence Officer Christina Hillsberg wrote for the Daily Beast that Trump’s slashing of DEI initiatives at the CIA “demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of how the intelligence community works.”
“It risks reverting decades of progress at the spy organization, making the United States more vulnerable to a host of global threats,” Hillsberg wrote.
One former CIA analyst put the present concerns bluntly to POLITICO: “The point of having an $80 billion intelligence service is to inform the president to avert a strategic surprise.”
