Jen Psaki
π€ SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And Trump's aides had to essentially trick him into reading other important briefings.
dumbing things down into single-page memos with lots of pictures.
At one point, the National Security Council even started strategically including Trump's name in as many paragraphs as possible because he would only keep reading if the documents talked about him.
When Trump's second administration began, Trump's advisers even reportedly floated the idea of creating a video version of his daily intelligence brief that was, quote, made to look and feel like a Fox News broadcast.
So now the president's briefing has been dumbed down so much that he's reportedly getting updates on his most consequential military decision using what is essentially a highlight reel of stuff blowing up.
That's where we are.
That's the information that he's getting.
And we don't know exactly what those videos show.
We do have a window into this administration's visual sensibilities, because after all, this is the same administration that has been littering the internet with absolutely insane propaganda videos.
You can see a bunch of them on your screen there, splicing together footage of US military strikes with clips of sports, video games, and movies, featuring everything from Call of Duty to SpongeBob SquarePants.
Videos that a White House spokesperson once referred to as banger memes.
But it's not just the format of Trump's briefing videos that is so concerning.
It's what Trump is and is not getting out of them.
I mean, the officials who spoke to NBC News say that Trump's video briefing, quote, is fueling concerns about some of Trump's allies, among some of Trump's allies, that he may not be receiving or absorbing the complete picture of the war.
And they have good reason to think that, because since this war began, there have been multiple occasions that Trump has seemed totally oblivious about what is happening and why it's happening.
I mean, Trump repeatedly insisted that nobody knew Iran would respond to American strikes by attacking their neighbors in the region, a claim so baffling that everyone from congressional Democrats to Fox News hosts have been wondering how the president could possibly have been so uninformed.
Anybody want to answer that question?
They weren't supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East.
And nobody thought they were going toβwere you equally surprised by that, Pete?
Were you equally surprised by that, Pete?