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'I ran the CIA - these are Trump's mistakes and why they're so scary' [1]
['Rob Hastings', 'Special Projects Editor', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar']
Date: 2025-06-25 13:00:00+00:00
EXCLUSIVE
Leon Panetta warns Donald Trump's lack of trust in his own intelligence chiefs is 'very scary' and 'dangerous' to world security
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Donald Trump‘s lack of trust in his own intelligence chiefs and ignorance of their advice while launching military action is “very scary” and “dangerous” to world security, a former head of the CIA has warned.
Leon Panetta, who was Director of the US spy agency from 2009 to 2011, is alarmed by the President’s declaration that intelligence he received on Iran’s nuclear programme – shortly before he ordered risky strikes on the country – was “wrong”.
Panetta’s intervention comes after Trump once again hit out at his own security experts, saying a leaked assessment was “fake news,” after it reportedly suggested Iran’s nuclear facilities may have only been set back by months and not “obliterated” as he claimed.
In an interview with The i Paper, Panetta said that Trump’s attitude sets a worrying trend for the White House’s decision-making process over any future armed interventions.
He also suggested that the President’s “unpredictability” means he is a risk to Nato allies, who will have to consider this while monitoring the actions of dictators such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un.
Panetta said: “I don’t think there’s any alternative but to understand how dangerous a world we live in right now.
“Not only because of the adversaries that are out there – whether it’s China, or Russia, or North Korea, or Iran, or terrorism – but also because of the concerns about leadership, and whether or not the US will exercise the right kind of leadership in a dangerous world.”
Leon Panetta served as CIA chief for two years under Barack Obama (Photo: Alex Wong/ Getty)
The political storm over US intelligence
Controversy over how the White House uses intelligence reports to make vital decisions has grown after the latest dismissive comments from Trump and his team.
The President has rejected the Defence Intelligence Agency’s leaked initial judgment that the American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities may not have been a knock-out blow, with a White House spokesperson also saying: “This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong.”
Speaking from his home in California, Panetta said: “There’s no question that when the US President makes a statement that our intelligence assessments are wrong and doesn’t believe our own intelligence, that creates a very dangerous moment.
“It undermines the work of our intelligence professionals who really are focused on trying to provide the President with the truth. When the President questions their credibility, that certainly undermines their morale, I’m sure.
“But secondly, it also creates a real problem for the President, because if he rejects the intelligence he’s receiving, then what will be the basis for the decisions that he makes in the future, and that is a very scary prospect.”
He added: “I have always been confident about our intelligence assessments with regards to Iran… The fundamental question is: did they make a decision to proceed with developing a weapon? And I think our intelligence indicates that that still was not the case.”
Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Fordo was among the three nuclear sites hit by US bombers at the weekend (Photo: Planet Labs PBC/AFP)
The row originally broke out after Trump publicly slapped down guidance from his own Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who told Congress in March that “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.” Serving security officials insist this has remained true all along.
Trump publicly dismissed the guidance, bluntly telling reporters last Friday: “My intelligence community is wrong.” The following night, American B-2 bombers struck Iran’s key uranium plants.
However, Panetta said that once Trump had asserted that Iran was aiming to manufacture a bomb, the White House “had to stand by its word” and was left with “no alternative” but to attack.
Gabbard has since tried to realign her stance with Trump, writing online: “America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalise the assembly.”
Donald Trump said an intelligence briefing on Iran by Tulsi Gabbard was ‘wrong’ (Photo: Andrew Harnik /Getty)
Concerns over Trump’s Nato commitment
As a former member of Barack Obama’s cabinet – serving as Defence Secretary for Trump’s arch rival – Panetta is no political friend of Trump’s.
However, the 86-year-old former White House chief of staff under Bill Clinton remains a respected expert on global security. He is now a co-host of the leading foreign affairs podcast One Decision, together with the former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove.
Panetta praised Sir Keir Starmer’s cautious approach to the Israel-Iran conflict. “The most important thing the Prime Minister can do is to try to be a force for trying to resolve this conflict in a peaceful way,” he said.
During Barack Obama’s first administration, Leon Panetta met many global leaders, including Benjamin Netanyahu, Xi Jinping and David Cameron (Photos: Getty Images)
He acknowledged that Trump’s scepticism towards Nato – and ambiguity over whether he would come to the aid of another member state if it were attacked by Russia – poses huge security questions for the UK and its other allies.
With the summit of Nato leaders now underway in the Netherlands, Panetta said that members “have to assume an America that is going to continue to be unpredictable when it comes to the Nato alliance.”
Given increasing concerns about a future Russian assault, he said: “It really does rest with our European allies to do everything necessary to make sure that Nato is prepared militarily, to be able to respond if necessary.”
The White House and the CIA were approached for comment.
@robhastings.bsky.social
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[1] Url:
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/cia-trumps-mistakes-scary-3768498
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