meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
War on the Rocks

He's Just Not That Into You: Trump, Intel, and the American Presidency

War on the Rocks

War on the Rocks

News, Politics

4.61.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2017

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One thing is clear about President-elect Donald Trump: He is skeptical of the U.S. intelligence community. With the aid of a bottle of bourbon, War on the Rocks assembled a top-notch group of experts to talk about what Trump means for the intelligence community. Our guests in this episode included Carmen Medina - a 32-year veteran of the CIA; David Priess - author of The President's Book of Secrets and a CIA veteran; Mark Stout - a WOTR senior editor, program director at Johns Hopkins, and a veteran of the CIA and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research; and Mark Zaid - a prominent national security attorney and the head of the James Madison Project.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You are listening to the War on the Rocks podcast on strategy, defense and foreign affairs.

0:12.3

My name is Ryan Evans.

0:13.0

I'm the editor-in-chief of Warren the Rocks.

0:15.0

In this episode, we talk about intelligence in the Trump administration

0:18.0

with a very special parent.

0:19.0

We have Mark Stout, Carmen Medina, David Priests, and Mark Zaid.

0:23.7

Mark Stout is of course a senior editor here at Warren the Rocks.

0:26.6

He is also the program director of the M.A. and Global Security Studies

0:29.4

at Johns Hopkins University.

0:31.1

He's a veteran of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and

0:33.6

Research and the CIA. Carmen Medina is a retired CIA analyst with 32 years of

0:38.6

experience of the agency. From 2005 to 2007, Carmen was part of the executive team that led the CIA's analysis

0:44.6

directorate, and in that job she served as a senior reviewer of the President's daily brief.

0:49.6

David Priz is the author of the President's Book of Secrets, which was about those same briefings, intelligence briefings to American Presidents.

0:55.2

He is also, in addition to being an academic, a veteran of the CIA himself during the

0:59.8

presidency of Bill Clinton and George W Bush.

1:02.0

Mark Zaid is a lawyer based here in Washington, D.C.

1:05.0

has practice specializes in cases related to national security, intelligence, international law, and freedom of information.

1:10.0

He is also the executive director and founder of the James Madison project.

1:14.0

Enjoy the show.

1:15.0

So the Trump administration has a, well Trump himself I should say, has a very particular approach to intelligence. I think we'll just sort of put it that way.

1:33.0

What is it about this president's attitude towards intelligence

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from War on the Rocks, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of War on the Rocks and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.