As that last press conference once again proved, Donald Trump is an idiot. So now our intelligence agencies are having to grapple with how to present complex and vitally important world events in a fashion that Our Idiot Manchild would be willing to read, or be able to understand.
Keep it short and free of nuance—that is the new guidance that has recently circulated to some intelligence analysts who compile materials for the President's Daily Brief on security threats around the globe. [...]
The memo sent to certain analysts within the intelligence community notes that the commander in chief's daily briefing book typically contains reports on only three topics, typically no more than one page each. According to the guidance, Trump's PDB also includes space for a short update, presumably on matters brought up in previous briefs.
So no more than three things can happen in the world, and for God's sake make sure they can all fit on their own pages. Also, never include nuance or dissenting information or shift the general point of view between one memo and the next, because you'll just confuse the chucklehead.
The guidance states that analysts should only include facts that support their analyses, and it explains that topics presented in the PDB will not be covered from different perspectives in separate briefings.
Oh, sure. It’s easy to see how different perspectives would break this guy’s brain. You don’t want to constantly be having to hover behind the sitting president with a pair of jumper cables in hand in case he accidentally reads two contrary interpretations of something in one place. So how does this compare to our last president?
[W]hile Mr. Obama liked policy option papers that were three to six single-spaced pages, council staff members are now being told to keep papers to a single page, with lots of graphics and maps.
“The president likes maps,” one official said.
Perhaps the most interesting tidbit is the instruction to not confuse Trump with dissenting information. Obama liked "policy option papers,” and Donald Trump's policy comes from the other direction. Namely, from whichever television programs he watches during any given morning.
Three weeks into the Trump administration, council staff members get up in the morning, read President Trump’s Twitter posts and struggle to make policy to fit them.
So yeah, we're still boned.