Trump’s hot mess puts our national security at risk

What could possibly go wrong?

It may seem foreign today, but when I was a kid the CIA was respected by all, revered by many, feared by our enemies and was constantly giving aid and comfort to Americans who knew they could sleep more soundly because America’s spies were on the job.

In short, the CIA represented the strength of the United States, the determination of its citizens to protect themselves and their allies while it sent a clear message to those who wished us ill that they should find someone else to prey upon.

That was then. After World War II and during the Cold War, we knew who our enemies were and what they wanted — mostly because the most elaborate and competent spy agency in the world told us so.

Today, things seem different. We have gone from a Cold War to a hot mess as President Donald Trump’s minions — led by a fourth, more than equal branch of government called DOGE — pursue their boss’s disruptive course through the Americas.

This past week, though, the DOGE disciples flexed their muscles in a most destructive way. It was destructive not to our enemies but to ourselves.

Under the guise of ferreting out waste, fraud and abuse in government, Elon Musk, et al, have ferreted their way into the bowels of our spy agency in a way that Russia, China, North Korea and Iran could only dream of doing on their best days.

It wasn’t big news — probably because the public continues to not pay attention or the people responsible for reining in those who would destroy us from within have become bystanders and cheerleaders in the effort. (If I am not being clear, I refer you to another, once equal, branch of government called Congress, which is giving new meaning to the term AWOL.)

The headline read, “CIA Sends White House an Unclassified Email With Names of Some Employees.” The story was much worse.

That’s right. The spy agency, following a presidential edict, delivered information about some of its employees — the kind of employees our enemies would love to meet, greet and welcome to their side of the global aisle — in a way that any 12-year-old could capture. Whatever happened to being careful? Whatever happened to acting like it’s actually a spy agency we are dealing with? Whatever happened to protecting the men and women who work daily to protect us and expect us to protect them in the process? Whatever happened to the concept of keeping a secret in the national interest?

Mind you, I am not complaining about furloughing or firing air traffic controllers, for example. Who needs them?

Nor am I complaining about firing or otherwise forcing government employees like those who represent the best of America to people around the world to whom we look to for support when the stuff hits the fan. Who needs friends in time of need, right?

And, no, I am not complaining about firing career prosecutors and FBI officials ­­— who have committed themselves to upholding the rule of law, which enables free societies like ours to remain free — just because they did their jobs. The only time we need dedicated people running our system of justice is, well, all the time. But, again, who needs them?

No, what I am complaining about is when the Trump administration is doing the job that our enemies wish they could do but can’t. So we do it for them.

We provide the access to our spies and would-be spies as well as the people who support them to those who have sworn to defeat or destroy us.

Now, I am certain there will be many people — including almost all Republicans in Congress who have forgotten their oaths to the Constitution while they repeat their loyalty oaths to the president — who will claim that sharing information about American spies is not that big of a deal.

And, perhaps they are right. As a society today, we share everything with anyone who wants to know anything about us and our lives. And while it is difficult for people of a certain age to accept this new norm, it just may be that personal and national security are just legacy concepts from another time, to be consigned to that historical dustbin in which everything else that used to make America great will soon repose.

It is just that in the old days, we used to think sharing national secrets and information about the people who keep them was off limits. Way off limits.

I miss the old days when Americans cared about doing what was best for America, when we all worked to make sure nothing could go wrong and no one could hurt our fellow citizens.

Those days appear to be gone. Today, Donald Trump appears to be on course to shake up the establishment, wake up the world and tear up a couple of centuries of hard work keeping America’s secrets secret and Americans safe as a result.

Today, it seems, most of America is content with just giving in to the Trump/Musk world view, which means giving up the very people we have always depended upon to save us in our time of need.

Do we really want to be that careless and uncaring by giving our enemies everything they want? Is that what America voted for?

If the answer to that question is “yes,” it begs the next one. What could possibly go wrong?

Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.