Tablet Magazine

On Wednesday, a Donald Trump administration official waiting for his background check to be completed was removed from a top post in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence before he officially began. Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a foreign policy expert at the Charles Koch-backed Defense Priorities, was set to become the agency’s No. 3 official, deputy director for mission integration (DDMI). Among other duties, the DDMI is responsible for preparing the presidential daily briefing (PDB), the U.S. intelligence community’s most important and most sensitive document, produced specifically for America’s No. 1 customer for intelligence. Even before Davis’ appointment was made public, it raised serious concerns among Trump insiders, including former intelligence officials who served during the president’s first term. The issue, as they explained to Tablet, was not just Davis’ lack of experience in intelligence matters but also his idiosyncratic foreign policy views, which are at odds with Trump’s on virtually every key issue—including China, Iran, Russia, Hamas and pro-Hamas campus protesters.

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