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But perhaps most important is the fact that Trump tends to ignore intelligence briefings and reports, as NBC News reported that Gabbard is exploring new ways to “revamp” his intelligence briefings in order to bring them in line with “how he likes to consume information.” From the report:

One idea that’s been discussed is possibly creating a video version of the PDB that’s made to look and feel like a Fox News broadcast, four of the people with direct knowledge of the discussions said. ... One idea that has been discussed is to transform the PDB so it mirrors a Fox News broadcast, according to four of the people with direct knowledge of the discussions. Under that concept as it has been discussed, the national intelligence director’s office could hire a Fox News producer to produce it and one of the network’s personalities to present it; Trump, an avid Fox News viewer, could then watch the broadcast PDB whenever he wanted.

I can appreciate why this might seem amusing, but NBC News wasn’t kidding.

The same report noted that one insider envisioned a new presidential daily briefing that would include “maps with animated representations of exploding bombs, similar to a video game,” apparently in the hopes of capturing the president’s attention.

“The problem with Trump is that he doesn’t read,” said one person with direct knowledge of the PDB discussions.

Of course, that’s only part of the problem. Not only does the Republican avoid reading briefing materials, he also doesn’t want to receive in-person, oral presentations of intelligence, either. Politico reported last month that Trump, during his second term, “has sat for just 12 presentations from intelligence officials of the President’s Daily Brief,” which represents “a significant drop” compared with the Republican’s first term, and a vastly smaller number than the presentations for recent Democratic presidents......

In early 2020, the Post reported that Trump missed the early alarms on the Covid threat in part because he “routinely skips reading the PDB” and had “little patience” for oral summaries of the intelligence. Exactly five years ago next week, The New York Times had a related report:

The president veers off on tangents and getting him back on topic is difficult, they said. He has a short attention span and rarely, if ever, reads intelligence reports, relying instead on conservative media and his friends for information. He is unashamed to interrupt intelligence officers and riff based on tips or gossip. ... Mr. Trump rarely absorbs information that he disagrees with or that runs counter to his worldview, the officials said. Briefing him has been so great a challenge compared with his predecessors that the intelligence agencies have hired outside consultants to study how better to present information to him.

It was an extraordinary revelation to consider: A sitting American president, in a time of multiple and dangerous crises, was so resistant to learning about security threats that his own country’s intelligence officials sought outside help to figure out how to get him to listen and focus.

Will Gabbard figure out a way to get Trump to care about information he doesn’t want to receive? There’s reason for skepticism.