'Be ashamed!' Trump's spy chief blasts WSJ over report on major new espionage effort

President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, tore into the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday after the outlet published an explosive report detailing a major new U.S. intelligence effort focused on Greenland.

The move – reportedly tied to Trump’s longstanding fascination with acquiring the island from Denmark – came after several high-ranking officials in Gabbard’s office issued a “collection emphasis message” to intelligence agency heads last week. They were ordered to increase spying operations in Greenland to gather intelligence on the island’s “independence movement and attitudes on American resource extraction.”

But Gabbard hit back hard in a scathing statement, accusing the Journal of endangering national security.

“The Wall Street Journal should be ashamed of aiding deep state actors who seek to undermine the President by politicizing and leaking classified information,” Gabbard said in a statement. “They are breaking the law and undermining our nation’s security and democracy.”

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The classified initiative revealed by the Journal’s exclusive report Tuesday includes the use of “surveillance satellites, communications intercepts and spies on the ground, to identify people in Greenland and Denmark who support U.S. objectives for the island.”

The directive marks one of the Trump administration’s first tangible moves toward advancing the president’s obsession with taking over Greenland, the Journal reported.

“The president has been very clear that the U.S. is concerned about the security of Greenland and the Arctic," National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt told the Journal. He added that the White House does not issue comments regarding intelligence operations.