Despite the White House’s denials, new reporting indicates that Trump was briefed in writing in February on Russian bounties paid to Taliban-linked militants to kill American troops. Either he knew and did nothing, or he ignored the briefing and did nothing.

Trump was briefed in writing in late February on Russian bounties paid to kill American troops.

New York Times: “American officials provided a written briefing in late February to President Trump laying out their conclusion that a Russian military intelligence unit offered and paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan, two officials familiar with the matter said.”

Top White House officials were reportedly aware in early 2019 of Russia secretly offering bounties to the Taliban, and briefed Trump at the time.

Associated Press: “Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported, according to U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the intelligence.”

Associated Press: “The assessment was included in at least one of President Donald Trump’s written daily intelligence briefings at the time, according to the officials. Then-national security adviser John Bolton also told colleagues he briefed Trump on the intelligence assessment in March 2019.”

Trump is consistently unprepared and has so often been outplayed by Putin and other leaders that it has posed a national security threat.

CNN: “In hundreds of highly classified phone calls with foreign heads of state, President Donald Trump was so consistently unprepared for discussion of serious issues, so often outplayed in his conversations with powerful leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and so abusive to leaders of America’s principal allies, that the calls helped convince some senior US officials — including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff — that the President himself posed a danger to the national security of the United States, according to White House and intelligence officials intimately familiar with the contents of the conversations.”