Some close to the White House believe that Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats may soon be ousted as President Trump’s top intelligence official, a move that would draw ire from Capitol Hill and likely raise new concerns about the administration’s national security apparatus.
The latest speculation around Coats’s potential dismissal comes just weeks after the director of national intelligence (DNI) testified in a high-profile congressional hearing that North Korea is “unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons” amid talks between Trump and the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
Longtime Trump confidant Christopher Ruddy this week raised the possibility the president could remove Coats from his post, asserting in a CNN interview that there is “general disappointment” with him at the White House, and that he overstepped his bounds by trying to “make policy and not inform policy.”
A former Trump administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Hill, “There is a growing sense in the administration that Coats’s days are numbered.”
When asked by a reporter Tuesday if he had any plans to replace Coats, Trump said, “I haven’t even thought about it.”
Any effort by Trump to fire Coats would likely to spark a fury of criticism from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where the former Republican senator from Indiana is widely respected. Coats has long been viewed as a steady force in the administration and has outlasted other top national security officials whose departures have been a source of controversy.
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Speculation grows that Trump will fire the director of national intelligence https://t.co/hlNeM8w7u3 pic.twitter.com/knWN6ppj2A
— The Hill (@thehill) February 20, 2019
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