Trump 'devoured' intel briefings as he sought 'leverage' on allies he disliked: report
Donald Trump's intelligence briefing habits while in office were the subject of a deep-dive by The New York Times published online on Thursday evening.
"As president, Donald J. Trump showed the most interest in intelligence briefings when the topics revolved around his personal relationships with world leaders and the power available at his fingertips," the newspaper reported. "Mr. Trump’s appetite for sensitive information is now at the heart of the criminal investigation into his handling of hundreds of classified documents he kept at his Florida home after leaving office."
Trump was particularly focused on his counterparts on the world stage.
"Mr. Trump devoured intelligence briefings about his foreign counterparts before and after calls with them. He was eager to deepen his relationships with autocrats like Kim Jong-un of North Korea or Xi Jinping of China and to get leverage over allies he took a personal dislike to, such as Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada," The Times reported.
A document identified as having information concerning Macron was listed by the FBI as having been recovered from Mar-a-Lago.
"With many world leaders, Mr. Trump, whose own dalliances were the stuff of gossip columns for years, was fascinated by what the C.I.A. had learned about his international counterparts’ supposed extramarital affairs — not because he was going to confront them with the information, former officials said, but rather because he found it titillating," the newspaper reported.
Trump had reportedly bragged to friends he "knew illicit details" about Macron's sex life.
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