Why POTUS Must Never Skip Intelligence Briefings—A Spy Thriller’s Take

 

Trump views a PDB intelligence update as national security decisions loom

If you follow politics even casually, you might’ve caught a Politico headline that slipped by with barely a ripple: President Trump has sat for only 12 “daily” intelligence briefings since taking office. Twelve. In roughly 100 days. That’s not just a scheduling quirk. It’s a red flag.

     At first, it almost sounded like a technicality. But the more I thought about it—and the more I compared it to the world I write in—the more it stopped feeling like policy and started feeling personal.

     Because the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) isn’t just paperwork. It’s the frontline defense between Americans and the next national crisis.

     In the Corey Pearson – CIA Spymaster Series, the PDB is treated like what it truly is: a weapon against surprise. One of the most gripping scenes in the series has Corey walking into the Oval Office beside the CIA Director to brief President Rheinhart. It’s not a photo-op or a stiff routine. It’s strategic. Urgent. Life-and-death.

     The fictional PDB they lay on the desk is lean—no fluff, no noise, no half-baked theories. It’s a distilled threat map of the world, with Corey interpreting signals that others missed. Signals pulled from HUMINT assets, satellite intel, cyber activity, and historical patterns. The CIA Director doesn’t sugarcoat a thing. Rheinhart listens, interrupts, challenges, and questions—because real leadership engages with real threats.

     That scene might be fictional. But the principles behind it are not.

     For decades, every American president has relied on the PDB to understand the world’s most pressing threats—foreign military moves, espionage networks, terrorism chatter, cyber intrusions, hostile influence campaigns. Stuff you and I will never see—but stuff we absolutely depend on someone reading.

     Which is why Trump’s disinterest in the PDB is more than just unconventional. It’s reckless.

     Instead of the in-person briefings that prior presidents prioritized—think Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton, Obama—reporting suggests Trump preferred visuals, short summaries, and minimal engagement. No depth. No context. Often, no direct briefing at all. As if complex global threats could be handled like a PowerPoint deck.

     Meanwhile, in the fictional world I write, those same threats are taken seriously enough to justify covert action. That trust—between the intelligence community and President Rheinhart—is what prevents wars, stops attacks, and saves American lives before anyone even knows they were at risk.

     Here in the real world? Threats don’t pause just because someone’s too busy for a meeting. Russia’s war machine grinds forward. China plays the long game in tech and territory. Iran tests boundaries. Cyber threats evolve daily. These aren’t cable news plotlines. They shape fuel prices, hack elections, trigger supply chain chaos, and shake military readiness.

     And it’s not just about being "informed." It’s about being prepared. You can’t lead a country on instinct alone. Intelligence matters. Systems matter. The analysts behind those briefings? They’ve spent entire careers learning how to detect lies, connect dots, and flag subtle patterns before they explode into chaos.

     When President Rheinhart in my Corey Pearson – CIA Spymaster Series challenges an intel briefing, it’s not because he doubts the CIA—it’s because he wants to understand the risk deeper. Because decisions only get better when the people making them actually show up for the hard conversations.

     That’s why the contrast matters so much. Because when the real-world commander-in-chief skips that briefing—or treats it like background noise—it sends a message. To adversaries, it looks like distraction. To allies, it looks like disengagement. And to career intelligence professionals who have dedicated their lives to keeping this country safe, it feels like betrayal.

     And honestly? It’s not theoretical.

     We’ve already seen what happens when intelligence warnings are brushed aside. Think 9/11. Think election interference. Think massive data breaches that exposed millions. In most of those cases, it wasn’t that the intelligence didn’t exist. It was that it wasn’t taken seriously enough.

     I keep imagining a moment—one that’s all too plausible—where an urgent warning about an attack or cyber strike sits unopened. Not because the system failed, but because someone at the top chose not to read it.

     In my fiction, that’s the moment Corey Pearson goes straight to the Oval, no appointment needed. Because the stakes are too high. Because the President demands answers. Because in that universe, the PDB isn’t paperwork. It’s prevention.

     And maybe that’s why I write it that way. Because that’s the leadership I want to imagine.

     Not every problem can be solved by spies and satellites. But if we’re going to face what’s out there, we need leaders who listen to the people trained to see it coming.

     If that kind of behind-the-scenes intelligence drama hits a nerve with you, you’re not alone. Sometimes, fiction gives us the space to explore what the real world could—and should—look like.

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes about the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). He also writes the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster Series, which blends his knowledge of real-life intelligence operations with gripping fictional storytelling. His thrillers reveal the shadowy world of covert missions and betrayal with striking realism.