Donald Trump has been receiving his presidential briefings only once a week, unlike past presidents who have been known to receive daily briefings to stay updated on the country’s affairs, according to Cosmopolitan. After being criticized for this decision, the President-Elect sat down for an interview on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace to try to explain himself.
In the interview, Trump basically said that he does not need to receive briefings daily because he’s “like, a smart person,” and the briefings can get repetitive. He says he feels that with the way things are working out now, he only needs to get briefed when there’s a change, adding, “I don’t have to be told the same thing and the same words every single day for the next 8 years.”
Trump also explained to Wallace that the Vice President-Elect, Mike Pence, attends every daily briefing and informs Trump when there’s something new that’s come up or a change that he needs to know about.
Each of our last 10 presidents since Harry S. Truman have received a daily briefing every day, even if they may be a little repetitive, Mashable notes. After all, the president kind of needs to know what’s going on around the country and the world at all times. The briefings often include important information about U.S. security threats—One famous example that has been declassified, from August 2001, was titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US.” Obviously, this came about a month before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. No wonder people are uncomfortable with Trump blowing off a daily briefing.
It’s also important to note that in 2014, Trump used Twitter to falsely accuse President Barack Obama for not attending daily briefings, tweeting, “Fact–Obama does not read his intelligence briefings nor does he get briefed in person by the CIA or DOD. Too busy I guess!” For some reason he seems to feel that he does not hold the same responsibilities in his new role as past presidents have.
The Washington Post reported in 2012 on the claims that Obama was skipping his briefings, explaining that he was briefed daily, but chose to get his briefings in written memo form a lot of the time. After reading the briefing, he would bring questions and comments to a daily national security meeting. Several presidents, including Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon, have chosen to read their briefings instead of meeting face to face with intelligence officials. But given Trump’s noted aversion to reading, it’s probably safe to say he’s not going to start getting the written briefings. It’s fine, though, because he’s “like, a smart person.”