The Guardian has interviewed multiple intelligence experts who are predicting that a second Trump presidency would be a disaster for the United States.
Included among them was retired CIA Operations Officer Douglas London, who told the publication that former President Donald Trump's affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin was particularly troubling.
"I think Trump and Putin are natural bedfellows," he said.
London added that Trump would likely take a page out of Putin's playbook and use the CIA as a weapon to attack his domestic political opponents.
"Trump could do this by using the agency’s unique capabilities and authorities to spy on, silence and perhaps even bring harm to his enemies," he said.
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Fiona Hill, a former Trump national security official, said that her one-time boss is "shockingly ignorant" of world affairs and she said that Putin would benefit from Trump installing loyalists at top intelligence positions who would be tasked with ousting any officials deemed insufficiently loyal to him.
“Putin much prefers the chaos agent of Trump because it undermines the US,” Hill said. “Trump’s not worried about national security, but focused on himself. In paring back the US government and appointing loyalists, Trump will get rid of vital security expertise.”
Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior intelligence service official, worried about the negative effects that Trump's politicization of intelligence would have on intelligence collection, especially when it comes to the willingness of American allies to share what they know.
"You’ll see old allies not sharing critical intelligence, and for good reason... the intelligence will dry up," he predicted of a second Trump term. "If Trump wins, forget the Brits or French – two of our best bilateral intelligence partners in Europe – ever sharing anything significant with us on Russia, for example."
