Officials in the Pentagon are "all on pins and needles" waiting to hear if President Donald Trump will tweet further announcements about military decisions, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Monday, while blasting the president for his "appalling arrogance."
“There are all kinds of unintended consequences that will occur here, and it plays havoc in the Pentagon," Clapper told CNN's "New Day."
"The other thing, of course, is they are all on pins and needles thinking what is the next tweet we will get about deploying or withdrawing with not a lot of notice.”
Last week, Trump used Twitter to confirm reports that he was pulling troops from Syria, to announce that ISIS is no longer a threat, and to place notice that Defense Secretary James Mattis had resigned.
He also said Trump has shown "appalling arrogance" over ISIS and he should listen to his advisers.
"ISIS is not defeated, not in Syria," said Clapper. "It's a good thing to remember that ISIS is other places besides Syria, like Afghanistan, where they have a prominent presence there as well. I don't think he knows more than the generals do."
He added that he expects even more chaos in 2019, and that Mattis' resignation was a "significant milestone."
"I think it is going to cause a lot of other people to do some hard thinking about their own position in the government and whether they can continue to serve," said Clapper.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.