President Donald Trump is proving to be an easy read for foreign intelligence services gauging how his mind works.
The steady stream of tweets flowing from Trump’s phone and the leak this week of candid conversations he’s had with two foreign leaders throw open a window on Trump’s views of the world, his moods and sensitivities.
“The president's tweets are an absolute gold mine of personal, detailed information on his personality and his emotional state,” former CIA director Michael Hayden said.
Friday was not atypical for Trump, who had tweeted five times by mid-morning, and re-tweeted six messages written by others, giving an indication of what was on his mind, his likes and dislikes. Trump has 35.1 million followers on Twitter.
Getting a read on Trump through his public remarks and tweets is only one way foreign governments assess his temperament. More powerful nations also spy on him directly, seeking to eavesdrop on his conversations, and read his texts, former intelligence officials said.
Every country in the world has Donald Trump marked for collection.
Malcolm Nance, former NSA codebreaker
“Every country in the world has Donald Trump marked for collection,” said Malcolm Nance, a retired codebreaker from the National Security Agency, the nation’s premier data collection branch.
Trump prides himself on his unpredictability, and in a little more than six months in office, he has upended relations with traditional allies in Europe, piqued Australia, and found only a handful of foreign leaders who have openly embraced him, including the leaders of Poland, Saudi Arabia, Japan and China. Much of the world has been busy trying to read Trump.
“The White House and the U.S. president have always been priority targets for intelligence gathering by both hostile and allied security services," said Stephen B. Slick, a former CIA operations officer who now directs the Intelligence Studies Project at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.
"The chaotic personnel and policymaking practices of the the current administration will only reinforce that focus," Slick said.
French President Emmanuel Macron feted Trump in Paris last month. France is a U.S. ally on counterterrorism efforts, but Nance said he has no doubt that Macron seeks intelligence on the U.S. leader and would thwart him if he learned through French intelligence of pending U.S. action that Macron opposed.
“If Macron should wake up one morning and get information that Donald Trump has a secret plan to nuke North Korea … he would drop that dime on national television,” Nance said.
U.S. allies in the Baltics are “mortally terrified that Donald Trump is going to turn their nations over to Russia,” Nance added, and as hosts of allied listening posts that gather signals they may find it in their interests “to tell the world” if they don’t like how the tea leaves read.