Susan Rice lays out how Trump's war on facts poses a 'profound' national security threat

On Tuesday, former national security adviser Susan Rice warned that President Donald Trump's claim the Obama administration and/or British intelligence spied on the Trump campaign is a national security risk.

"These false statements from the White House are part of a disturbing pattern of behavior that poses real and potentially profound dangers to U.S. national security," the former security official wrote in the Washington Post. In the op-ed, Rice points out that part of America's role on the world stage is to provide sturdy leadership—the understanding that the "United States is steady, rational and fact-based."

Rice accused Donald Trump of betraying that trust. "So, when a White House deliberately dissembles and serially contorts the facts, its actions pose a serious risk to America’s global leadership, among friends and adversaries alike," she argues.

Rice points out that key global relationships and US endeavors on the world stage depend on the President's ability to convince allies and adversaries that the US will stick to its promises.

"The United States’ words matter. Critical calculations are based on our perceived credibility," Rice points out.

Ultimately, the former ambassador advises that the White House should end its "vacation from veracity."

If they fail to do that, "one is left to wonder whether the damage inflicted on U.S. global leadership is the deliberate derivative of the “deconstruction of the administrative state” or simply the lasting consequence of compulsive mendacity. Either way, the United States’ national security will suffer," Rice concludes.