‘It’s Bullsh*t’: Maggie Haberman Sources Say Trump Chiefs Mocked Regime Change Intel Ahead of War

CNN commentator, bestselling author, and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s sources said that President Donald Trump’s top advisers mocked intelligence on the prospect of “regime change” ahead of the war in Iran, one even calling it “bullsh*t.”

Haberman has been on a months-long leave of absence while working on the book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” which is co-written by Jonathan Swan and comes out in June.

In a deep dive based on reporting for the book, Haberman and Swan recount a meeting at which CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio derided the intelligence that was presented to Trump by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Words like “farcical,” “oversell,” and “bullsh*t” were bandied:

The results of the U.S. intelligence analysis were shared the following day, Feb. 12, in another meeting for only American officials in the Situation Room. Before Mr. Trump arrived, two senior intelligence officials briefed the president’s inner circle.

The intelligence officials had deep expertise in U.S. military capabilities, and they knew the Iranian system and its players inside out. They had broken down Mr. Netanyahu’s presentation into four parts. First was decapitation — killing the ayatollah. Second was crippling Iran’s capacity to project power and threaten its neighbors. Third was a popular uprising inside Iran. And fourth was regime change, with a secular leader installed to govern the country.

The U.S. officials assessed that the first two objectives were achievable with American intelligence and military power. They assessed that the third and fourth parts of Mr. Netanyahu’s pitch, which included the possibility of the Kurds mounting a ground invasion of Iran, were detached from reality.

When Mr. Trump joined the meeting, Mr. Ratcliffe briefed him on the assessment. The C.I.A. director used one word to describe the Israeli prime minister’s regime change scenarios: “farcical.”

At that point, Mr. Rubio cut in. “In other words, it’s bullshit,” he said.

Mr. Ratcliffe added that given the unpredictability of events in any conflict, regime change could happen, but it should not be considered an achievable objective

Several others jumped in, including Mr. Vance, just back from Azerbaijan, who also expressed strong skepticism about the prospect of regime change.

The president then turned to General Caine. “General, what do you think?”

General Caine replied: “Sir, this is, in my experience, standard operating procedure for the Israelis. They oversell, and their plans are not always well-developed. They know they need us, and that’s why they’re hard-selling.”

Read the full piece here.

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