Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats has spent more time at the White House than the office's headquarters during his first 12 weeks on the job and is potentially risking alienating the DNI's 2,000 employees because of his absence, Foreign Policy reported.
Coats this month told Senate lawmakers he spends about 45 minutes to an hour every day briefing Trump, a meeting he "thought would be a one or two times a week, 10 to 15-minute quick brief."
He also said he was surprised how much time he spends at the White House and Trump is a "voracious consumer of information."
"I think [CIA] Director [Mike] Pompeo and I can certify the fact that we have spent far more hours in the Oval Office than we anticipated," Coats said before the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump has often criticized the intelligence community and Coats has not won the loyalty of many of the DNI's employees, according to Foreign Policy. He is also an outsider in a way as he lacks the hands-on experience some of his predecessors had.
"He's not of this world in a lot of ways," a former top official who would not speak on the record told Foreign Policy. "It's a tough job if you don't have an intelligence community background. He's certainly drinking from a fire hose."
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