“America should not be throwing a lifeline to Putin’s war machine…Putin doesn’t want peace. Putin wants Ukraine.” — Mike Pence I briefed him as Vice President. He’s right. Lifting sanctions doesn’t buy peace. It funds the war. Slava Ukraini.

Threatening to cut off intel to a country fighting for its life, while handing oil money to the invader, isn’t diplomacy. It’s betrayal. A year ago, the president told Ukraine to hit Russia’s refineries and “make them feel the pain.” Now he threatens to cut off U.S. intel.

Weak men hide behind their phones. If the President or Hegseth want to throw slurs at a trans woman who served them — they can say it to my face. Then everyone can see the hate behind their policies. Thanks to @nicollewallace.bsky.social for having me on.

So you're saying right before an election where the price of diesel is hurting the President, Russia is going to help bring the price down? And Ka$h is going to Moscow? There's got to be some word for that. Collision? Collagen?

On the 10th anniversary of Russia’s election interference, the FBI Director —who called it a hoax—is flying to Moscow, as guest of the FSB. As I said to @sarahfitzpatrick.bsky.social: “Unless he’s going to warn them to stay out of our elections, and get out of Ukraine, he has no business there.”

Why Is Kash Patel Planning to Visit Russia?

Democrats in Congress are asking the FBI director to cancel the reported trip.

theatlantic.com

The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · 2d ago

Exclusive: A pair of senior House Democrats are urging FBI Director Kash Patel to call off a reported planned trip to Russia, according to a letter @sfitz787.bsky.social obtained. “In the interest of national security, we ask you to reconsider,” they wrote. theatln.tc/e0fGwbrC

Our allies are hedging. The Gulf states bought American protection and got a war they didn’t start, on their own soil. Shawn Howard and I worked together at CIA and both deployed to the region. When Iranian missiles hit, we watched the U.S. evacuate our Gulf bases. Our hosts couldn’t leave.

The President has an army. Congress has the checkbook. And voters decide who holds both. My voter guide for @thesteadystate.org covers what a president actually controls, where his power ends, the warning signs to watch for in either party—and two questions to ask anyone on your ballot November 3.

Hold Fast: What a President Actually Controls

A guide to the limits and powers of the executive branch over defense, intelligence, and emergencies

steadystate1.substack.com

If the president or Pete Hegseth wants to call someone a “tr*nny” — I’m right here. On Monday, with the country at war, Trump called a Senate candidate named Annie “tr*nny.” She’s not trans. I am. But his White House never used the word with me. Why?

The White House will say the election was stolen. But a vulnerability is not an intrusion, and an intrusion is not an altered vote. Reuters: a probe of one Puerto Rico voting machine pulled in ODNI, DOJ, DHS, and the FBI. It found nothing. Stephen Miller’s answer: seize more machines.

How Trump’s obsession with ‘rigged’ voting machines spread across US government

The effort to prove the 2020 election "stolen" failed. Diehards remain undeterred.

reuters.com

I deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, briefed Mike Pence, and served three White Houses. Every time the call came, I raised my hand. Then the purges came for the experts, and I was one of thousands pushed out. Some were fired. More looked at what the job had become and left.

The President has no idea how to end this war. And it could get worse: what will he do once the midterms are behind him and gas prices no longer cost him votes? My former CIA and NSC colleagues Cole Bucy and Nate Swanson lay out the trap in Foreign Policy:

Did Washington walk into Beijing’s trap? Did we get anything besides the pandas? Xi Jinping got a pageant fit for an emperor on his first state visit in 11 years. He went home with a trade truce extension, new AI and military crisis channels, and a clear read on how little Washington had prepared.

Truth first. Then reconciliation. We can rebuild institutions, but only if we face what happened. Daniel Kimmage ran State’s office fighting Russian, Chinese, and Iranian disinformation. The administration shut it down, claiming it censored Americans. Dozens lost careers on baseless charges.

A 5,000-year-old civilization isn’t impressed by your ballroom. @frankfigliuzzi.bsky.social kept asking: Where are the experts? What’s the strategy? We marked the scorecard: Xi summit: Anything besides two pandas? Iran war: What's the way out? CIA exodus: What does losing our best officers cost?

At the U.N., the President thundered: a deal with Iran, or would he “annihilate” them and “drive them into hell”? The Iranian delegation yawned. The world stopped listening to our words. They watch a President negotiate with himself while his relatives and real estate developers hunt for an exit.

“Trump started this war … and we are paying the price.” That’s the diagnosis of Gulf official, and as the war drags on the bill keeps rising. Today in Foreign Policy, my friend Shawn Howard breaks down the region’s response to Washington’s failure to end the war or provide security.

Gulf States Are Hedging and Suffering

Neither appealing to Washington nor diversifying security partners nor back-channeling with Tehran is insulating the region from the consequences of war.

foreignpolicy.com

Have I mentioned my essay in The Atlantic? I have? Every day? My therapist says stop. My publicist says keep going. My publicist is winning. This week on Rational Security -- “The Right Kind of American” (aka the Shameless Self-Promotion Edition).

Can Washington get its experts back? Hope is not a strategy. The officers pushed out of CIA, FBI, and across national security have built new lives. A security clearance was never meant to be a loyalty test, or a tool to punish dissent. Many won’t return without a real path back.

What would a President’s Daily Brief on the U.S. say today? I used to write that PDB about Iran, Russia, and Hungary. The pattern never changes. When the economy collapses or the war goes badly, a flailing regime picks a minority, brands it the enemy within, and rallies the country against it.

Jake Sullivan asked what keeps me up at night. Not any single purge. It's that we're dismantling the apparatus that lets us see clearly — mid-war, and mid-competition with China. China is building capacity. We're purging the officers who spent decades watching them.

Yes, it can happen here. We applied the same tradecraft CIA uses to assess a foreign government. American democracy is deteriorating faster than it was in June — the shift this summer is from punishing individuals to intervening in the machinery of the November midterms.

CIA turns 79 today. It may not reach 80 with its integrity intact. The word around town is that John Ratcliffe is the adult in the room. No grift, no guru, reads like a serious person. But normal is not an acceptable test for a CIA director.

ELECTION DAY — NOV. 3, 2026 — 11:40 p.m. The president demands vote counting stop in Michigan. 100,000 mail-in ballots uncounted. DHS says it "cannot verify the accuracy of the results those machines produce." An American election thrown into chaos.

Really great to speak with @msignorile.bsky.social about the damage to the intel community under this administration, but also my hope that we can still recover if we’re given the chance in 2029.

SiriusXM Progress@siriusxmprog.bsky.social · 4w ago

#JuliaCurlee of @lawfaremedia.org , who is a former CIA analyst fired in a transphobic purge by the @realdonaldtrump.govmirrors.com administration, talking about the long term damage #MAGA has done to the #CIA, on the @msignorile.bsky.social Show Full interview on the app: siriusxm.us/Progress

I guess more time for Major Hegseth to work on his form at the Pentagon gym.

Bree Fram@breefram.bsky.social · 4w ago

I joined @juliacurlee.bsky.social to talk with UK Channel 4 about Trump pushing qualified people out of government and demonizing trans people. As we wrapped, Mike Johnson sent the House home, stalling a vote to impeach Hegseth. No need to sit back down. We'd already said plenty about his failures.

They would have thrown me in jail. If I'd ever represented the U.S. to a foreign power — as Jared Kushner does — while soliciting private investment from those same foreign governments, I'd have lost my clearance and been investigated by the FBI.

The White House has attacked me four times now. Something is missing. They've never used the word—transgender. They said a president can remove any official. That officials must advance the America First agenda. That my tour was ending anyway.

The administration went to war against the "Deep State" and lost the war with Iran. Pentagon leaders mass-emailed staff for ideas on how to break the stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz. If only they had a Council. To discuss National Security.

Hot take: I spent years writing and briefing the President's Daily Brief. I say this with love in my heart — we should abolish the PDB. Mostly kidding. Maybe. This week's Rational Security: the 5th Anniversary Hot Take Takedown, and Shane Harris, Quinta Jurecic, Ben Wittes, and Scott Anderson.

Rational Security: The “Fifth Anniversary Hot Take Takedown” Edition

YouTube video by Lawfare

youtube.com

After 9/11 I spent 15 years in Iraq, Afghanistan, and everywhere else a CIA officer serves. People are alive today, including me, because of the authorities we built to fight a terrorist enemy. I justified most of it because I believed the mission was righteous.