TRUMP, NIXON, AND THE CIA
TRUMP, NIXON, AND THE CIA

Summary/Abstract: “Unproductive”, “disloyal”, “what the hell do those clowns do out there in Langley”. Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, had some fairly waspish things to say about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Nearly 50 years later, so too does the latest resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Donald J. Trump. In the 10 months or so since winning the 2016 presidential election against his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, the bombastic New York businessman has called CIA officers “politically motivated” and “sick people” who peddle “fake news”, and even equated the Agency with Nazi Germany. In his attitude towards the Agency, Trump is compelling reminiscent of Nixon, albeit with one big difference: while the latter expressed his feelings privately in the Oval Office, to be combed over by historians decades later, Trump – the self-appointed “Ernest Hemingway of a hundred and forty characters” – has made his animus towards the CIA public knowledge in real time, thanks largely to a series of early-morning social media tirades.

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