President Trump on Wednesday took aim at U.S. national security officials over their analysis of the dangers posed by Iran, the latest instance of him casting doubt on the abilities of his own intelligence experts.
In a series of tweets, Mr. Trump suggested that Iran is close to developing nuclear weapons and that intelligence agencies who don’t recognize the threat are misinformed.
Mr. Trump’s remarks come a day after U.S. intelligence chiefs testified to a Senate panel about various risks facing the U.S. In some cases, the officials took positions that undercut the case Mr. Trump has been making about the potential for a nuclear deal with North Korea and the threat posed by Iran.
“The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong!” the president said in one morning tweet. In another, he wrote that Iran was “testing Rockets” last week. “Be careful of Iran,” he wrote. “Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!”
Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, testified Tuesday that officials did not believe Iran was developing a nuclear weapon. That assertion is at odds with Mr. Trump’s long-held view that the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that President Obama negotiated alongside five other nations was ineffective.
“We do not believe Iran is currently undertaking the key activities we judge necessary to produce a nuclear device,” Mr. Coats said.
Mr. Coats’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Additionally, on North Korea, intelligence officials were more skeptical than the president about the country’s willingness to give up its nuclear weapons.
Mr. Trump is planning a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un next month, hoping to lock down commitments to roll back the country’s nuclear program.
Mr. Trump is hoping his personal chemistry with Mr. Kim will help smooth the path toward a nuclear deal. At a rally in West Virginia last year, he noted that he has gotten “beautiful letters” from Mr. Kim and the two “fell in love.”
Mr. Trump has long made clear he is wary of the conclusions coming from the U.S. network of spies and intelligence officials whose job is to keep him informed about foreign threats.
He has used the Iraq war to justify his skepticism, noting faulty intelligence estimates that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. As president-elect, his transition team said of U.S. intelligence agencies, “These are the same people who said Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction.”
That statement was in response to reports that U.S. intelligence officials concluded that Russia interfered in the presidential race to aid Mr. Trump.
At a summit meeting in Helsinki last year, he seemed to give equal weight to dueling assertions from U.S. intelligence officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections, while Mr. Putin denied that was the case.
Standing next to Mr. Putin, the president said he had “great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”
The Helsinki summit underscored the gap between Mr. Trump and his hand-picked intelligence chiefs. At an event last year in Aspen, Mr. Coats seemed unaware that Mr. Trump had invited Mr. Putin to another summit meeting.
“Say that again?” Mr. Coats said during an onstage interview. “That’s going to be special.”
Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday rebuked Mr. Trump over his criticism of the intelligence community.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), tweeted: “It is a credit to our intelligence agencies that they continue to provide rigorous and realistic analyses of the threats we face. It’s deeply dangerous that the White House isn’t listening.”
