____________________________________________ 4 IICC Perspectives The next stage was hostility, which was Trump’s reaction to the intelligence community’s confirmation of suspicions regarding Russian interference in the elections. Notable manifestations included his reference to the publication of the report on January 6 as an event that "could have happened in Nazi Germany" and his statement, when meeting with President Vladimir Putin in July 2018, that he, Trump, trusted him more than the American intelligence community. Trump also made it clear that he had no interest in intelligence briefings, including the President's Daily Brief (PDB), considered the intelligence community’s most critical report, and showed disregard for the need to protect sources, for example by disclosing sensitive intelligence received from Israel to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov or the publication of classified satellite images in his morning tweets. The third stage was dependence. Like his predecessors, Trump eventually recognized the need for intelligence assessments and information. Despite his hostility toward the community, he approved operations that relied on intelligence, such as strikes on facilities associated with chemical weapons in Syria, the elimination of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October 2019, and the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, in January 2020. Ironically, despite his well-known hostility toward intelligence, he took pride in the operations. During his first term, Trump eventually recognized the need for intelligence assessments and information, for the elimination of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (October 2019), and the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (January 2020) ( A.F.P, AP) חוסל
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