Of the many revelations from former acting Attorney General Sally Yates' Senate hearing on May 8, Naval War College professor Tom Nichols said in a series of tweets that President Donald Trump's response might have been the most interesting.
The 14-tweet-long thread begins with Nichols explaining his background as a "Sovietologist", and how he "would have given anything for Andropov or Gorbachev to give me a running narrative of their mood and inner thoughts in real time" the way Trump appears to have done with his tweets about Yates following her testimony.
He went on to say that the president's Twitter feed "is basically a raw feed of POTUS thoughts to foreign analysts" because they are "pieces of the president's moods and thoughts that day".
"This only occurred to me today as I realized how easily POTUS tweets were giving me a minute by minute image of his reactions to Yates," Nichols tweeted, and then added "this is the kind of instant leadership portrait that I wouldn't want a foreign nation to have when gaming out a crisis with us."
"It is, from a foreign intel analyst's viewpoint, in some ways probably more valuable than classified memos," Nichols tweeted. "It's real and instant."
He said Trump's tweets broadcast "how the President reacts under stress," which is "something you never want the enemy to know". Nevertheless, Nichols tweeted, "it's all out there, every day".
After an aside about "how the President processes information" and how valuable that kind of information can be, he completed the thread by saying that while it's not his place to "tell the President how to communicate," he finds "hugely dangerous in revealing real-time POTUS reactions".
Read Nichols' entire thread below.
I am often astonished at the President's tweets, and how he calls media in his own country as "fake news." But there's something else /1— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290104.0
I was a Sovietologist back in the day. I was constantly trying to unpack what I thought was happening behind the Kremlin's walls. /2— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290121.0
I would have given anything for Andropov or Gorbachev to give me a running narrative of their mood and inner thoughts in real time. /3— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290153.0
As an analyst, including my time years ago as a CIA consultant doing research in the 80s, I'd have considered that a gold mine. /4— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290176.0
And I wonder if, and or how, anyone is considering the fact that this is basically a raw feed of POTUS thoughts to foreign analysts. /5— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290194.0
Because while none of the matters are classified - at least AFAIK - tweets are pieces of the president's moods and thoughts that day. /6— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290211.0
This only occurred to me today as I realized how easily POTUS tweets were giving me a minute by minute image of his reactions to Yates. /7— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290234.0
This is the kind of instant leadership portrait that I wouldn't want a foreign nation to have when gaming out a crisis with us. /8— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290250.0
Americans might well appreciate the candor. But I thought Obama did too much thinking out loud in front of cameras. This is far more. /9— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290265.0
It is, from a foreign intel analyst's viewpoint, in some ways probably more valuable than classified memos. It's real and instant. /10— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290282.0
It shows how the President reacts under stress. It's something you never want the enemy to know. And yet it's all out there, every day. /11— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290298.0
It's also a window into how the President processes information - or how he doesn't process info he doesn't like. Solid gold info. /12— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290320.0
These are all things I would have given anything to know, even just a fraction of this, in an analysis of any Soviet or Russia leader. /13— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290348.0
It's not for me to tell the President how to communicate. But I find something hugely dangerous in revealing real-time POTUS reactions. /14x— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1494290368.0
