2016 ELECTION/CIA/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP PEOPLE: “President Trump hailed Gina Haspel on Monday [5-21-18] as he swore her in to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, honoring the ‘most elite intelligence professionals on the planet’ even as he accuses the C.I.A. of having orchestrated a conspiracy against him during the 2016 presidential campaign…Mr. Trump’s brief remarks were strikingly different from those he delivered on his first visit to the agency the day after his inauguration, when he stood in front of a memorial to fallen intelligence officers and delivered an angry, political diatribe against the media, Democrats and others who questioned the size of his inaugural crowd…The president’s decision to praise the nation’s premiere intelligence agency served as a contradictory note amid what has been a relentless assault on what he perceives as the intelligence community’s improper actions as part of the investigations into his presidential campaign and his administration.”
-Michael D. Shear, “Trump Swears in Gina Haspel as C.I.A. Director, Praising the Agency as ‘Most Elite’ in the World,” The New York Times online, May 21, 2018