Trump is More Likely To Take Aim at the CIA Than at Russia or the Taliban UPDATE

Last night, a New York Times article revealed that a Russian military intelligence unit covertly offered bounties to Taliban terrorists to kill U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The article further revealed the Trump Administration became aware of this in late March and has yet to respond.

Needless to say this is an explosive story. As Kurt Eichenwald tweeted:

That Russia paid the Taliban to kill US soldiers - then, after CIA told Trump, he *did nothing* but try to reward Russia by bringing them into the G7 - is the biggest story in decades. It doesnt matter what Putin has on Trump. He's a traitor. He deserves prison, not reelection.

We should scale this back a little bit. As the article notes:

While officials were said to be confident about the intelligence that Russian operatives offered and paid bounties to Afghan militants for killing Americans, they have greater uncertainty about how high in the Russian government the covert operation was authorized and what its aim might be.

Yet even with this uncertainty it does reflect poorly upon Trump that he hasn't issued a response of any kind. Trump's failure to respond reinforces the perception that he is nothing more than a Russian puppet especially when one considers his overture to invite Russia back into the G-7 less than a month ago. This story also compounds the troubles Trump has had with his ineffectual response to COVID-19 along with the economic carnage and social unrest which has followed.

Both Russia and the Taliban deny the allegations and their word will probably be good enough for Trump. After all, Trump took Vladimir Putin's word over the FBI nearly two years ago with regard to Russian interference in the 2016 election. That and Trump has a peace agreement he is pursuing with the Taliban.

When we take these facts into consideration when Trump does respond he is far more likely to direct his ire at the CIA than he would to either Russia or the Taliban. After all, Trump has accused the FBI of "treason". What makes anyone think Trump would spare the CIA the same invective?

If Trump travels down this familiar path it will be yet another self-inflicted wound and only further obstruct his path to re-election.

UPDATE: White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany claims neither President Trump nor Vice-President Pence were briefed on the matter.

I don't believe her denial than I believe that of Russia and the Taliban.