{"id":2695881,"date":"2026-11-02T15:58:55","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T20:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/as-trump-makes-nice-with-moscow-the-cia-has-other-ideas\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T16:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T21:04:23","slug":"as-trump-makes-nice-with-moscow-the-cia-has-other-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/as-trump-makes-nice-with-moscow-the-cia-has-other-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"As Trump \u2018Makes Nice\u2019 with Moscow, the CIA Has Other Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fas-trump-makes-nice-with-moscow-the-cia-has-other-ideas%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2695881&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Atlantic\u2019s October 23 profile of CIA Director John Ratcliffe &#8211; headlined that the agency is \u201cat war with Russia, even as Trump makes nice with Putin\u201d &#8211; presents him as a seasoned professional who gives blunt, clear-eyed assessments to the president. But that flattering portrait obscures deeper problems: the reliability of CIA analysis, the policy effects of those analyses, and how a culture drawn to militarized covert operations can warp intelligence work.<\/p>\n<p>Intelligence is not purely objective; it depends heavily on institutional culture. A former Israeli intelligence chief has argued that Israel\u2019s October 7 failure stemmed less from missing data than from a culture that wouldn\u2019t accept being wrong. That warning is relevant here. The Atlantic suggests two troubling cultural markers at the CIA: staff view Ratcliffe as convinced of the Russian threat, and the agency\u2019s covert-action arm is energized by its prominent role in ukraine. Former officials argue this leads to self-reinforcing activity that can clash with overt U.S.diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p>One illustration is the apparent contradiction between trump\u2019s efforts to strike a deal with Russia (including moves to ease diesel shortages) and the CIA-backed campaign to degrade Russian fuel infrastructure.Critics say U.S. actions have sometimes sabotaged Trump\u2019s bargaining leverage and produced incoherent policy outcomes. The recent Starlink episode &#8211; whether the system was shut down, throttled, or glitched &#8211; highlighted the institutional friction: the president seems unable or unwilling to fully control CIA operations. In one reported case, Starlink access was withheld briefly to pressure ukraine to stop striking Russian refineries; service was restored within days.<\/p>\n<p>If these reports are accurate, the \u201cdeep state\u201d appears resistant to Trump\u2019s outreach to Moscow, while Trump has limited means to rein them in.Simultaneously occurring, Moscow has adjusted: Putin has moved to systematically destroy Ukrainian infrastructure that could be used against Russia, pursuing an intense operational campaign intended to secure long-term strategic depth. Observers note Russia\u2019s material advantage and resilience may determine the war\u2019s outcome.<\/p>\n<p>That raises the question whether CIA analysts truly grasp the evolving dynamics or are operating with institutional assumptions that blind them to inconvenient possibilities. Europe, for its part, is not prepared to respond differently. Political denial persists and the EU lacks a practicable plan to end the conflict. Financially,Europe is strained &#8211; Eurozone debt has climbed sharply,with France and Italy at very high levels &#8211; making it unlikely the bloc can meet large new funding requests from Kyiv.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts in Russia argue Western Europe is entering a new phase of systemic crisis driven by a faltering socioeconomic model and a long-standing lack of strategic independence from Washington; NATO has functioned to preserve the current order,which would be hard to change. The piece ends by asking whether the CIA, confident in its own wartime role, is fully aware of these broader political and economic shifts.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-blog-post__content s-wysiwyg s-wysiwyg--blog\">\n<div style=\"margin-bottom:30px;\" id=\"elevenlabs-audionative-widget\" data-height=\"90\" data-width=\"100%\" data-frameborder=\"no\" data-scrolling=\"no\" data-publicuserid=\"cb0d9922301244fcc1aeafd0610a8e90a36a320754121ee126557a7416405662\" data-playerurl=\"https:\/\/elevenlabs.io\/player\/index.html\" >Loading the <a href=\"https:\/\/elevenlabs.io\/text-to-speech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elevenlabs Text to Speech<\/a> AudioNative Player&#8230;<\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/elevenlabs.io\/player\/audioNativeHelper.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph\">The <em>Atlantic<\/em> on October 23 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/national-security\/2026\/10\/ukraine-russia-trump-john-ratcliffe\/689090\/\">published<\/a> a profile of CIA chief John Ratcliffe. Its subheadline contains the most significant \u201ctell\u201d from the piece\u2014\u201cCIA Director John Ratcliffe leads an agency that\u2019s at war with Russia, even as Trump makes nice with Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <em>Atlantic<\/em> article makes no bones about its ulterior purpose. It is to present Ratcliffe as an even-handed professional who has mastered the intricacies of the Ukraine War and tells it \u201clike it is\u201d to the president, leaving the latter to decide his options.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This panegyric to Ratcliffe, however, hides substantive issues about the probity of CIA intelligence analyses, their impact on policy, and the extent to which the pure excitement of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >militarized covert action inevitably hobbles intelligence agencies<\/a> and analytic reporting.<\/p>\n<p>                         <!-- \/22404337467,3946880\/theamericanconservative-Leaderboard-Top -->                         <\/p>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1742316429780-0' style='min-width: 300px; min-height: 50px; max-width: 100%; '>                         <\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Intelligence is never wholly objective. And its professionalism largely hangs on service culture, which can\u2014and does\u2014change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As one example, a former head of the IDF\u2019s Military Intelligence research and analysis division, General Itai Brun, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/ex-idf-intel-analysis-chief-replacing-people-wont-fix-oct-7-strategic-intel-failure\/\">warned<\/a> that Israel\u2019s inability to recognize what Hamas was planning for October 7 resulted, not from a lack of information, but from a failure of culture and approach. Per the <em>Times of Israel<\/em>\u2019s report of his comments:  <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even after the massacre, intelligence didn\u2019t internalize that Hamas believed it could succeed\u2026. The whole military intelligence network \u201cwas not listening, because it was convinced it knew\u2026. It could not accept the possibility that it was wrong.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, when it comes to \u201cculture,\u201d in this sense, two points in the <em>Atlantic<\/em> piece stand out: First, the article hints that Ratcliffe is seen by his staff to be \u201cclear-eyed about the threat Russia poses not just to Ukraine\u2014but to the United States and its allies.\u201d This suggests that Radcliffe sees Russia as an eternal enemy of the West, or at least a current enemy with nefarious intentions. Secondly, the article emphasises that the CIA is in \u201cthe lead\u201d on Ukraine and that its paramilitary wing\u2014Covert Action\u2014is thrilled at being so busy. As Larry Johnson, a former CIA official, <a href=\"https:\/\/sonar21.com\/trump-talks-peace-while-the-cia-is-fueling-the-war-in-ukraine\/\">outlines<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The CIA helps Ukraine knock out Russian refining capacity. Diesel prices soar. Then\u2026 in the middle of peace talks in Miami\u2026 President [Trump] announces a deal for Russia to sell its diesel on the world market\u2026. So the United States is simultaneously paying to destroy Russian diesel production and begging Russia to sell it more diesel. You could not design a more incoherent policy if you tried.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <em>Atlantic<\/em> piece lends credence to what has long been supposed\u2014that Trump\u2019s attempts to secure a \u201cdeal\u201d with Russia (most recently by importing Russian diesel into America to bring the price down for the midterm elections) is a deceit intended to coax Moscow towards making a deal (unfavorable, in the Kremlin optic) with Trump.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It would be a deceit because the CIA pursues its own (militarised) covert action war on Russia. The <em>Atlantic<\/em>, citing a CIA officer, reports: <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Armed with information that the U.S. provides, Ukraine\u2019s military has launched strikes deep inside Russia. And U.S. spy satellites provide early warning about incoming missiles and drones. Among U.S. personnel on the ground, \u201cthe CIA is in the lead,\u201d a retired senior officer who travels frequently to Ukraine told me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The recent Starlink <em>fracas<\/em>\u2014was its military communications network deactivated, was it go-slowed, did it glitch?\u2014only highlights ever more clearly the dysfunction inherent to the U.S. institutional contradiction underlined by the <em>Atlantic\u2019s<\/em> subheadline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Plainly\u2014for whatever the behind-the-scenes reason\u2014Trump does not choose (or cannot choose) to exert control over the CIA. (Although, he could cancel all previous \u201cPresidential Findings\u201d that legally frame what the CIA can and cannot do and could substitute them with his own Finding).  <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Evidently, all that Trump was able to do in this instance to advance his putative \u201cpeace deal\u201d was to withhold Starlink communications and intelligence sharing, <em>ad interim,<\/em> until Zelensky agreed to stop hitting Russian fuel refineries. The storm was over in days; Starlink was reactivated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How should we read these events? Plainly, the deep state isn\u2019t on board with Trump\u2019s \u201cmaking nice\u201d with Russia, and Trump isn\u2019t bringing them along.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does the Russian leadership understand what is afoot with Trump\u2019s apparent soft deceit that is intended to appease the MAGA constituency at home, whilst the CIA, as the <em>Atlantic<\/em> piece says, continues to \u201chave gotten too good at hurting Russia, for Trump\u2019s taste\u201d? <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Vladimir Putin, of course, understands completely. That is why Russian policy has pivoted to an operational-level strategy to destroy the militarily useful infrastructure of Ukraine, thus banishing the specter of a potential attack from the \u201cspace\u201d to the west of Russia for at least a generation, maybe more. As Dmitri Trenin <a href=\"https:\/\/russiancouncil.ru\/en\/analytics-and-comments\/analytics\/will-ukraine-survive-the-winter\/\">outlines<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Russian army has launched its own [campaign]\u2026 dropp[ing] some of its self-imposed restraint&#8230; hitting the targets that heretofore it had avoided\u2026 [as] a way \u201cto escalate to de-escalate\u201d\u2014six to nine months of intense air war in combination with advances on the ground that could bring the conflict to an end.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russia\u2019s tested resilience in this war is superior to Ukraine\u2019s in material terms and to Europe\u2019s in nonmaterial ones, which will likely determine what happens in the future.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The question, then, is does the CIA \u201cget it\u201d? Or is it, on the pattern outlined by Brun, the aforementioned Israeli general, that the CIA \u201cknows\u201d that Russia\u2014in fact\u2014is failing? In which case, the CIA was, in Brun\u2019s words, <em>\u201c<\/em>was not listening, because it was convinced it knew<em>.<\/em>\u201d The <em>Atlantic<\/em>, <em><\/em>again: \u201cNo one knows the state of the war, and the stakes involved, better than the CIA officers who are working in Ukraine and monitoring the fight from headquarters.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And are the Europeans listening? Not at the moment. The denial amongst some of the political class may be cracking, but it remains nonetheless <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/leader-finland-alexander-stubb-and-norway-jonas-gahr-store-talk-to-russia-vladimir-putin\/\">largely intact<\/a>\u2014mainly because no European leader has any feasible plan to end the Ukraine entanglement in any cogent way. And, at the same time, no European leader knows how the EU can fund Ukraine and its war without crashing the very financial architecture that underpins \u201cliberal\u201d Europe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet they soon will come to understand, because Europe is politically broken and financially broke\u2014Eurozone government debt has increased to nearly 89 percent of GDP in the past six months. France\u2019s debt has ballooned to 119 percent of GDP, while Italy\u2019s is approaching 140 percent. Economic growth is slowing, unemployment has edged higher, consumer confidence is falling, and the ECB has already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-complains-bidenflation-is-a-threat-to-the-whole-world\/\" title=\"China Complains Bidenflation Is a Threat to the Whole World\">started raising interest rates<\/a> again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Europe surely can\u2019t cough up the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinadailyasia.com\/hk\/article\/641277\">further \u20ac155 billion<\/a> that Zelensky is insisting Europe should provide to Ukraine\u2014particularly as the EU is already currently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/world\/europe\/article\/3371207\/zelensky-asks-eu-extra-79-billion-sustain-ukraines-war-effort\">paying<\/a> installments of the \u20ac90 billion loan for Ukraine that was meant \u201cto help cover funding to the end of 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"c-subscribe-email\" >\n<div class=\"l-container\">\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-email__wrap\">\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-email__head\">\n<h4 class=\"c-subscribe-email__heading\">Subscribe Today<\/h4>\n<h5 class=\"c-subscribe-email__subheading\">Get daily emails in your inbox<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-email__form-wrap\">      <!-- Begin Mailchimp Signup Form -->      <\/p>\n<div id=\"mc_embed_signup\">\n<form id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" class=\"validate\" action=\"https:\/\/theamericanconservative.us4.list-manage.com\/subscribe\/post?u=442e644c01f8e54e26e4ff3f8&#038;id=f7b67cac40\" method=\"post\" name=\"mc-embedded-subscribe-form\" novalidate target=\"_blank\">\n<div id=\"mc_embed_signup_scroll\">\n<div class=\"c-subscribe-email__fields\">              <label for=\"mce-EMAIL\" class=\"u-screenreader-text\">Email Address:<\/label>              <input id=\"mce-EMAIL\" class=\"c-subscribe-email__field\" name=\"EMAIL\" type=\"email\" value=\"\" placeholder=\"Your Email\" \/>              <input id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe\" class=\"c-subscribe-email__submit o-button o-button--red-500 o-button--solid\" name=\"subscribe\" type=\"submit\" value=\"Subscribe\" \/>            <\/div>\n<div id=\"mce-responses\" class=\"clear\">\n<div id=\"mce-error-response\" class=\"response\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"mce-success-response\" class=\"response\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>              <!-- real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups-->            <\/p>\n<div class=\"u-screenreader-text\" aria-hidden=\"true\">              <input tabindex=\"-1\" name=\"b_442e644c01f8e54e26e4ff3f8_f7b67cac40\" type=\"text\" value=\"\" \/>            <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>      <!--End mc_embed_signup-->          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russia is very aware of Europe\u2019s fracturing. As Timofey Bordachev of the Valdai Club <a href=\"https:\/\/rt-english.com\/news\/648032-western-europe-is-falling-apart\/amp\/\">lays bare<\/a>, \u201cWestern Europe is falling apart.\u201d Bordachev writes,<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The unrest sweeping several European countries\u2026 marks a new phase in the continent\u2019s systemic crisis\u2026 [reflecting] the convergence of two long-term problems that much of Europe\u2019s political establishment has proved incapable of resolving. The first is the exhaustion of the socioeconomic model that sustained Western European prosperity\u2026 The second is Western Europe\u2019s long-standing absence of genuine sovereignty\u2026. The [American-led NATO] alliance\u2019s practical [function] has been to preserve the existing political order\u2026. Transform[ing] that order would require a reassessment of relations with Washington and such independence is something these European governments have long been unwilling, or unable, to contemplate.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One wonders whether the CIA, which supposedly knows so much, knows about any of this either.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlantic\u2019s October 23 profile of CIA Director John Ratcliffe presents a subheadline that signals the piece\u2019s core message: the CIA is at war with Russia even as Trump acts friendlier toward Putin. The article clearly aims to portray Ratcliffe as a steady, even\u2011handed professional who grasps the Ukraine war\u2019s details and tells the president the truth, leaving policy choices to be made by others. Yet this admiring portrait glosses over deeper questions about the reliability of CIA intelligence, how it shapes policy, and how the thrill of militarized covert action can distort analysis and reporting.<\/p>\n<p>Intelligence is never perfectly objective, and its reliability largely depends on organizational culture, which can change. As a case in point, former IDF Military Intelligence head Itai Brun warned that Israel failed to anticipate Hamas\u2019s plans for October 7 not because of a lack of information, but because of a culture and approach that wouldn\u2019t accept the possibility of error. The Times of Israel quoted Brun saying that even after the massacre, the system couldn\u2019t internalize the belief that Hamas might succeed; the network \u201cwas not listening\u201d because it was convinced it already knew the answer.<\/p>\n<p>Within that frame of reference, two passages in the Atlantic stand out. First, the piece suggests Ratcliffe\u2019s staff views him as being clear-eyed about the threat Russia poses to Ukraine and to the United States and its allies, implying a view of Russia as an enduring adversary. Second, it stresses that the CIA is leading in Ukraine and that its covert-action arm is energized by the tempo. Larry Johnson, a former CIA official, describes a contradictory scenario in which the CIA helps Ukraine disrupt Russian refining capacity, drives up diesel prices, and then-amid peace talks in Miami-Trump talks of selling diesel to Russia, making the policy appear incoherent.<\/p>\n<p>The Atlantic\u2019s framing also lends weight to the view that Trump\u2019s efforts to strike a deal with Russia (such as promoting Russian diesel to ease midterm prices) are a strategic ruse intended to coax Moscow into a deal favorable to Trump, with the CIA continuing its own militarized campaign against Russia. The magazine cites a CIA officer noting that Ukraine has used U.S. intelligence to strike deep into Russia, and that U.S. spy satellites provide early warnings, with the CIA described as \u201cin the lead\u201d on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>The Starlink controversy-whether the military communications network was disabled, slowed, or glitching-illuminates the dysfunction suggested by the Atlantic\u2019s subheadline: the United States\u2019 institutional contradictions are on display. In practice, Trump apparently cannot-or will not-fully control the CIA, even though he could, in theory, revoke the Presidential Findings that govern CIA activities and replace them with his own. In this episode, Trump\u2019s leverage appears limited to withholding Starlink access and intelligence-sharing until Zelensky agrees to curb attacks on Russian refineries, after which Starlink was restored.<\/p>\n<p>How should these events be interpreted? It suggests that the \u201cdeep state\u201d isn\u2019t aligned with Trump\u2019s conciliatory stance toward Russia, while Trump isn\u2019t winning them over. Putin may understand the dynamics at play, including Trump\u2019s seeming willingness to placate MAGA while the CIA continues to \u201churt Russia, as the Atlantic phrased it, perhaps too effectively for Trump\u2019s taste.\u201d Putin\u2019s understanding helps explain Russia\u2019s shift toward a concrete, operational strategy aimed at crippling Ukraine\u2019s infrastructure to deter Western action for a generation or more. Dmitri Trenin has described Russia escalating its campaign-combining heavy air warfare with on-the-ground moves-to force an end to the conflict, a plan that may outlast Ukraine\u2019s and Europe\u2019s resilience.<\/p>\n<p>The central question is whether the CIA truly grasps this reality, or if, as Brun suggested, it thinks it already knows the truth and is thus missing what Russia is really doing. The Atlantic argues that CIA officers in Ukraine have a strong grasp of the war\u2019s state and stakes, perhaps more so than others, but in Europe a lack of credible leadership and funding plans to sustain Ukraine\u2019s effort complicates the picture. Europe\u2019s finances are stressed-debt levels are high, growth is slowing, and the euro area faces funding challenges for further support to Kyiv.<\/p>\n<p>Russia, for its part, is keenly aware of Europe\u2019s fragility. Timofey Bordachev of the Valdai Club argues that Western Europe is fracturing, facing unresolved structural problems and a long\u2011standing absence of true sovereignty. NATO\u2019s purpose, Bordachev says, has been to preserve the current order, and any move toward independence would require rethinking relations with Washington-something European governments have been unwilling or unable to contemplate. The piece ends by wondering whether the CIA is aware of any of this, too<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4463,"featured_media":2695882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/tac.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2270100481-scaled.jpg?auto=compress&#038;crop=faces%2Centropy&#038;fit=crop&#038;fm=jpg&#038;h=630&#038;ixlib=php-3.3.1&#038;q=80&#038;w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[7362,4551,4280,3634],"class_list":["post-2695881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily","tag-cia","tag-foreign-policy","tag-russia","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/tac.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2270100481-scaled.jpg?auto=compress&#038;crop=faces%2Centropy&#038;fit=crop&#038;fm=jpg&#038;h=630&#038;ixlib=php-3.3.1&#038;q=80&#038;w=1200","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4463"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2695881"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2695888,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2695881\/revisions\/2695888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2695882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2695881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2695881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2695881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}