Briefing Donald Trump as he prepared to enter the White House was more difficult than any other incoming president, according to a new book published by the CIA.
The publication, “Getting to Know the President” by the former intelligence officer John L. Helgerson, charted different presidents’ interactions with intelligence agencies.
In it, Helgerson wrote that “For the Intelligence Community, the Trump transition was far and away the most difficult in its historical experience with briefing new presidents.”
He said that the only comparable experience was with President Richard Nixon.
“The only (and imperfect) analogue was the Nixon transition,” he said, after Nixon “effectively declined” to work with the intelligence community and instead got his information through an intermediary.
“Trump was like Nixon, suspicious and insecure about the intelligence process, but unlike Nixon in the way he reacted,” Helgerson wrote.
“Rather than shut the [intelligence community] out, Trump engaged with it, but attacked it publicly.”
Helgerson’s book was first published in 1996, and has been updated with every new president.
