This could be why he does not remember being told about the bounties.

Courtesy of CNN:

President Donald Trump’s resistance to intelligence warnings about Russia led his national security team, including those who delivered the President’s Daily Brief to brief him verbally less often on Russia-related threats to the US, multiple former Trump administration officials who briefed Trump, were present for briefings and who prepared documents for his intelligence briefings tell CNN.

As the White House denies Trump was briefed about Russia placing bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan, which CNN has confirmed was included in the written PDB this spring, the question of what the President knew and when has moved to center stage. And it brings

Trump’s aversion to hearing negative analysis about Russia into renewed focus.

Multiple former administration officials I spoke to for my upcoming book, “The Madman Theory: Trump Takes on the World,” which will be published August 11 by Harper Collins, paint a picture of a President often unwilling to hear bad news about Russia.

According to one former senior intelligence official, the President’s briefers had one simple rule with Trump: never lead with Russia.

Early in his term, Trump’s briefers discovered that when his oral briefing included intelligence related to Russia’s malign activities against the United States, including evidence of its interference in US politics, Trump would often blow up at them, demanding to know why they kept focusing on Russia and often questioning the intelligence itself, multiple former administration officials said.

“The President has created an environment that dissuades, if not prohibits, the mentioning of any intelligence that isn’t favorable to Russia,” a former senior member of Trump’s national security staff told me.

I would label this unbelievable but it does in fact fit the pattern. 

Remember, Trump refused to admit that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election, despite reams of intelligence proving they did, because Putin denied the allegations. 

And let me also remind you that this is exactly what Christopher Steele warned us about in his dossier.

If only more people would have listened.

As for those bounties, now even the Taliban is admitting that they are real.

Courtesy of Business Insider:

Taliban commanders have confirmed that Russia has offered financial and material support to its members in exchange for attacking US forces in Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump has since strongly denied that he was told of this intelligence and attacked its credibility, characterizing the existence of Russian bounty payments as fake.

But three separate Taliban sources told Insider they were aware of Russian bounty payments being made — though they said only the less-disciplined elements on the fringes of the group would take up such an offer.

And there you have it. 

It just so happens that those magnificent bastards over at the Lincoln Project have come up with the perfect ad for this moment. 

I think that captures this moment quite well.