The United States "is already part of the global authoritarian axis." This is stated by the Pulitzer Prize winner and great chronicler of American espionage, Tim Weiner (New York, 1956), during his visit to Madrid to present the second part of his monumental history of the CIA. The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century begins with the Agency's existential crisis amid the traumatic birth of the century with 9/11 and ends in a dystopian drift: an autocratic president who has declared war on his own secret services and has put the entire world on red alert.
Question. Donald Trump completed nine months in power yesterday. How has his second term impacted the CIA?
Answer. From day one, he launched a wrecking ball to dismantle the national security architecture created by the US and its allies at the end of World War II, designed, among other things, to protect us from Russian imperialism. The first blow was against the CIA: three days after taking office, he placed one of his MAGA warriors, John Ratcliffe, at the helm of the Agency. The first thing he did was to launch a purge in the CIA, eliminating experienced and talented agents because they did not pass the test of "ideological purity." Trump hates the CIA.
Q. Why?
A. He detests it because he believes it is the capital of what he calls the "deep state." Of course, that "deep state" does not exist.
Q. How does one pass an ideological purity test?
A. The most veteran spies had to answer questions like: "Who did you vote for in 2024?"; "What do you think of the Capitol assault?" or "Who really won the 2020 election?"
Q. Was it done in writing?
A. It was more of an oral exam. The same has happened in the FBI: the Trump-appointed head, Kash Patel, is also dismantling the Bureau's structure. At the head of all this is Tulsi Gabbard, the czarina of national security, a conspiracy theorist. What we are witnessing is the systematic destruction of the most experienced talent in American intelligence. And that dramatically increases the risk of a catastrophic and systemic intelligence failure. Today we are going through a moment as dangerous as the days before 9/11.
Q. To what extent does the chaos affect alliances with other global intelligence services?
A. The US has agreements with over 60 intelligence services. But countries like the Netherlands have publicly stated that they will not share information with Washington because they do not trust the new leadership. This raises the risk of disaster because when intelligence is done well, it saves lives. For example, in August 2024, the CIA uncovered a plan by the Islamic State to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna. If the attack had been carried out, thousands of people would have died. The destruction of the American intelligence system by Trump increases global risk.
Q. Does all this instability benefit Russia and China?
A. The Russian and Chinese intelligence services are very different. The Russians just want to mess with the West; the Chinese want to know us. As Sun Tzu said in The Art of War: "Know your enemy." The Chinese espionage penetration into the American diplomatic corps is impressive. Ten years ago, they stole security files of all intelligence employees, including those of the CIA, and crossed them with biometric data taken from airports, processing them with Alibaba. Today, if an agent travels to China, a official who knows who they are can greet them as soon as they land.
Q. What does Beijing seek with this information gathering?
A. In 2013, Xi Jinping said: "Data is the oil of this era." China wants to dominate information to surpass the United States. They want a map of the human terrain, the battlefield.
Q. Trump is a politician who likes flattery. You mention in the book that the CIA chief distorts intelligence to please him.
A. Exactly. And ideology is the enemy of intelligence. When you are an ideologue, you already know which side you are on; so why do you need information? A few months ago, both the CIA and the National Intelligence Council reported that there were no justified reasons to declare war on Nicolás Maduro. Trump ordered that report to be rewritten to align with his ideas. When the Council refused, he fired the director. And then publicly announced a covert operation to depose the Venezuelan leader.
Q. Why has he made Venezuela a target?
A. What the American military is doing on Trump's orders in the Caribbean is assassination. You cannot shoot at a boat full of civilians in the middle of the sea: it violates international and American law. Assassination as an instrument of American foreign policy has a long and painful history in Latin America: Guatemala in 1954, the Nicaraguan Contras in the 80s, the invasion of Panama in 1989... In all those cases, thousands of innocent civilians died.
Q. Wasn't Trump supposed to be an isolationist?
A. Trump is not an isolationist, nor a Republican, nor a conservative. He is a sociopath. An 80-year-old child who takes the toy he wants. And who is running the US like a mafia boss.
Q. You describe the precise moment when Trump turned the US towards the global authoritarian axis. It was at the UN...
A. Imagine that moment. The US voting alongside Russia and North Korea against the resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine. That day, it joined the global authoritarian axis.
Q. How much resistance does the CIA have?
A. It is not common for resignations in the government due to principles, nor in the CIA. But it has happened before. Six days after Watergate, Nixon ordered the CIA chief, Richard Helms, to stop the FBI investigation for "national security." Helms refused. That was the beginning of the end for Nixon. CIA agents swear loyalty to the Constitution, not the president. But the president's powers to order covert operations are almost limitless. And Trump does not respect the rules.
Q. Is democracy in the US at risk?
A. My mother was born in Nuremberg in 1924. She spent her life fleeing Hitler's Germany. She finally made it to the United States. I know what happens when democracy breaks down. Democracy is fragile. The situation today is as serious as the months leading up to the Civil War of 1861.
Q. What are the consequences of the Trumpist agenda for US foreign policy?
A. The damage is enormous. With Trump, the US is not shooting itself in the foot but in the head of national security. The destruction of intelligence increases global risk. Trump has replaced professionalism with loyalty and turned foreign policy into a dangerous game that can cost lives worldwide. He wants to return to American imperialism, which is why he disdains NATO.
Q. On the other hand, he praises Putin. What does he owe him?
A. For 10 years, journalists, citizens, spies tried to understand this romance. But now we know the answer: Trump likes Putin because he wants to be like him, an autocrat.
Q. Has the CIA self-criticized after the mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan?
A. Yes, mainly by returning to its original mission, which is espionage. The Agency was not created to be an army or to torture.