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The intelligence community inspector general deemed a whistleblower complaint about a “promise” Trump made to a foreign power to be of such “urgent concern” that he informed Congress of the complaint’s existence himself rather than trust intelligence leaders to do so.
Especially in light of the president’s well-established recklessness on intel matters, these actions by the whistleblower and the inspector general are extraordinary and suggest that Trump may have acted in egregious opposition to American interests even by his own low standards.
This does indeed create a complicated situation because the president has broad power in dealing with foreign powers as he sees fit, including sharing classified information, which may or may not be the issue at hand in this case.
In the past, we’ve always been able to trust largely the loyalty, patriotism, and judgment of our presidents, Republican or Democratic. We’ve trusted them to make such decisions with at least elementary wisdom and while prioritizing obviously understood national interests.
We don’t have that luxury with Trump, who has a pattern of betraying basic standards for loyalty and judgment in his foreign engagements. Now he’s reportedly made a commitment to a foreign power that at least two intelligence officials believe warrants urgent concern.
The president’s broad authorities notwithstanding, he is not entitled to flagrantly betray the basic national interest.
Even Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, who is now refusing to share the details of the complaint with Congress, isn’t disputing its seriousness, rather his authority to act on it given the person in question, who we now know is the president himself.
But it IS the basic constitutional role of Congress to exercise oversight over the president on behalf of the people and it must know what potentially compromising commitments he’s made to foreign powers. That information must be provided in full to Congress one way or another.
