Ignorant' Trump thought Nepal and Bhutan are part of India
Chidanand Rajghatta: Times of India: February 05, 2019
WASHINGTON: By his own account, he is a "stable genius" who is smarter than his intelligence chiefs and his generals, and who knows more about military, defense, war, trade, jobs, banking, taxes, debt, governance, renewables, social media (among other things) than anyone else. But according to his critics and leakers who claim to interact with him, he is dumb as a rock, a doorknob, with a "stubborn disregard" for and "willful ignorance" about any assessment or brief that contradict his own ill-formed beliefs and opinions. In this welter of contradictory assessments comes a nugget that would dismay India’s friendly neighbors Nepal and Bhutan while perhaps pleasing proponents of "Akhand Bharat" who believe in a pan-Indianness that envelops other countries in the neighborhood: Apparently, President Trump believes Nepal and Bhutan are part of India, and he had to be told during a briefing on the region that they are separate countries.
The clanger, among other boo-boos reported by Time magazine and other media outlets in the US (which Trump habitually describes as "fake media") is part of a growing body of leaks that portray the U.S President as ignorant, uninformed, and uncaring of facts. More pertinently, he does not appear to have any inclination to listen or learn, and in more frivolous moments, he jokes about pronouncing Nepal as "nipple" and Bhutan as "button."
"Senior intelligence briefers are breaking two years of silence to warn that the President is endangering American security with what they say is a stubborn disregard for their assessments," Time magazine reported over the weekend, citing intelligence officials saying Trump displays what one called "willful ignorance" when presented with analyses generated by America’s $81 billion-a-year intelligence services. "The officials, who include analysts who prepare Trump’s briefs and the briefers themselves, describe futile attempts to keep his attention by using visual aids, confining some briefing points to two or three sentences, and repeating his name and title as frequently as possible," the magazine said.
"What is most troubling, say these officials and others in government and on Capitol Hill who have been briefed on the episodes, are Trump’s angry reactions when he is given information that contradicts positions he has taken or beliefs he holds.
Two intelligence officers even reported that they have been warned to avoid giving the President intelligence assessments that contradict stances he has taken in public," the magazine added.
Time’s story followed a Trump outburst last week in which he castigated US intelligence agencies for being "extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran" and a suggestion that its chiefs "should go back to school." The smack-down shocked the Washington establishment with critics venting on how the outlier president had dissed output from the hallowed $81 billion intelligence agencies (which in fairness do not have a stellar record of forecasts) Trump subsequently blamed the media for the rift between him and the intelligence community, although he has long derided conventional Washington wisdom built on the output of US intel agencies. But the narrative that Trump is ignorant, ill-informed, and lazy to boot keeps getting stronger all the time, with a new leak suggesting that he spends an inordinate amount of time watching TV, tweeting, talking on the phone, and generally goofing off, following up reports that he has a low attention span and can barely digest page-long policy briefs.
A leak of his schedule in the media outlet Axios that showed Trump spent around 60% of his scheduled time in unstructured "executive time," kept the media in thrall over the weekend, adding to the legend of a President who is out of his depth in the White House. Although an early riser who is up at 5-6 am, the schedule shows Trump's first meeting of the day is usually around 11 or 11:30 am —it is often an intelligence briefing or a 30-minute meeting with the chief of staff. Even after that his schedule is very light with large segments reserved for “executive time” because he apparently likes to do things in his own way.
"President Trump has a different leadership style than his predecessors and the results speak for themselves," his Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in response to the schedule leak. "While he spends much of his average day in scheduled meetings, events, and calls, there is time to allow for a more creative environment that has helped make him the most productive President in modern history."
One segment of the Axios leak revealed Trump’s fly-by-the-seat executive style. On November 13, 2018, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump reportedly had lunch with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni Thomas, in the private dining room adjoining the Oval Office. Trump apparently mentioned to them that he planned to nominate Neomi Rao, an Indian-American official, to replace Brett Kavanaugh on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
Justice Thomas then reportedly said, "Oh, she clerked for me," and praised her, following which Trump got his personal secretary Madeleine Westerhou, to call Rao (who was in the White House for a Diwali lamp lighting event) over to the dining room to join them. Rao came over and spent a few minutes chatting to them.
Straight after the lunch, Trump announced at a Diwali ceremony that Rao would take Kavanaugh's vacant seat. "What a disgraceful breach of trust to leak schedules," the 28-year-old Westerhout, who sits right outside Trump’s Oval Office tweeted about the Axios schedule leak on Monday. "What these don't show are the hundreds of calls and meetings @realDonaldTrump takes everyday. This POTUS is working harder for the American people than anyone in recent history."
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