Why are we not discussing that Trump regularly gets intel from conversations with foreign adversaries—especially Putin—and that reporting establishes he has undisclosed conversations with the Russian president? Maybe he doesn't care about the bounty story because Putin denied it?
So much Trump-scandal reporting sounds critical of Trump but is actually generously exculpatory, as it implies he's in the dark. But that's not what the evidence suggests: it suggests he gets his intel from *whatever sources say what he wants to hear*—even if it's the Kremlin.
My research on years of dodgy Trump-Putin conversations establishes that if Trump gets intel that creates a logistical problem for his Trump Organization–oriented foreign policy agenda, he talks to Putin—or whichever adversary—and immediately *accepts their denial* of the intel.
So I don't think journalists should be so quick to accept that either Trump wasn't briefed on the bounties or was briefed and forgot—as his past practice suggests that he would've received the information and shortly thereafter received a denial from Putin and simply accepted it.
Moreover, *if* the president is incapable of understanding or accepting intelligence on acts of war against our soldiers, he quite simply *can't be president* and needs to be removed from office immediately. Neither stupidity nor willful ignorance is an option in the Oval Office.
