Trump Could Get Fox News-Style Intelligence Briefings: Report

President Donald Trump’s National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard is looking for ways to change the president’s intelligence briefings to align with his media consumption habits and gain his trust, possibly adopting a video format, NBC News reports. 

Gabbard has apparently consulted current and former intelligence officials for solutions. One possibility would be to turn the briefings into videos styled after Fox News, four sources told the outlet in its report published Saturday. The President’s Daily Brief, or PDB, is currently a daily digital document containing text, graphics, and images. In order to carry out this new approach, the national intelligence director’s office could even hire one of Fox News’ talking heads and one of the network’s producers. Gabbard herself was a paid contributor to the network. 

Trump has received the PDB, which can influence the president’s decisions, just 14 times since he took office, according to his public schedule. During his first administration, the PDB was changed to a one-page outline that included less writing and more pictures, and was presented verbally. He received the briefing 55 times during this same period in 2017. President Joe Biden had received 90 PDBs by this time.

According to the sources, Gabbard thinks Trump’s infrequency could be because of his distrust of intelligence officials, but also because he consumes media differently than how the PDB is formatted. Fox News has been his favorite news source, at least since his first administration. 

“The problem with Trump is that he doesn’t read,” a source said. “He’s on broadcast all the time.”

Another idea for the PDB would be to include graphics and maps with animations of exploding bombs “similar to a video game,” per NBC News’ report.

Getting Trump to welcome the PDB “is a very uphill fight” because of his distrust of the intelligence community, one source told the outlet.

Gabbard’s office denied the story. “This so-called ‘reporting’ is laughable, absurd, and flat-out false. In true fake news fashion, NBC is publishing yet another anonymously sourced false story,” Olivia Coleman, the press secretary for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said in a statement to NBC News. 

The story is “libelous garbage from unnamed sources,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the outlet, adding: “President Trump has assembled a world-class intelligence team who he is constantly communicating with and receiving real time updates on all pressing national security issues. Ensuring the safety and security of the American people is President Trump’s number one priority.”

Gabbard has also considered shifting the PDB to focus on topics that Trump is more interested in, like economics and trade, and less on the war in Ukraine, three sources said. 

“You shift with the priorities of the administration,” one source told NBC News.

Earlier this month, Gabbard changed who prepared the PDB, giving her more control over it, PBS News reported. She also fired two top National Intelligence Council officials after the NIC said in a report that the Venezuelan government was not sending Tren de Aragua gang members to the U.S., contradicting Trump’s claims.

“Absent evidence to justify the firings, the workforce can only conclude that their jobs are contingent on producing analysis that is aligned with the President’s political agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical,” Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. 

A CIA report published in 2021 outlined the struggles of briefing Trump during his first administration. “Briefing Trump presented the IC with the most difficult challenges it had ever faced,” wrote retired intelligence officer John L. Helgerson. Trump, he said, “doubted the competence of intelligence professionals and felt no need for regular intelligence support.”

At the time, Trump was also not prone to receiving the PDB. “He touched it,” said Ted Gistaro, a CIA analyst who frequently briefed Trump, said in 2021. “He doesn’t really read anything.”