--- title: Donald Trump Criticizes John Brennan on Twitter description: President Donald Trump harshly criticized former CIA director John Brennan in a series of tweets quoting a guest on "Fox & Friends" just hours before... canonical: https://time.com/5285480/donald-trump-john-brennan-cia-twitter/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-21T16:26:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:28:16.777Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's Why Donald Trump Is Criticizing Former CIA Director John Brennan og:description: Brennan has said Trump is "deeply flawed." og:url: https://time.com/5285480/donald-trump-john-brennan-cia-twitter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23ba4c12dc70ada6/6988cecfbc6cfc502e3e1864/trump-allies-stumble-russia-probes-move-closer-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: trump-allies-stumble-russia-probes-move-closer-white-house og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Why Donald Trump Is Criticizing Former CIA Director John Brennan twitter:description: Brennan has said Trump is "deeply flawed." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23ba4c12dc70ada6/6988cecfbc6cfc502e3e1864/trump-allies-stumble-russia-probes-move-closer-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Why Donald Trump Is Criticizing Former CIA Director John Brennan > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ffe1f47e-3992-43aa-b790-c92563e35982&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Former CIA Director 'Concerned' About Contacts Between Trump Campaign and Russia [Watch (HLS stream): Former CIA Director 'Concerned' About Contacts Between Trump Campaign and Russia](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/R6YzPr5R.m3u8) (1:06)  _Published 2017-05-23. Former CIA Director John Brennan says he had "unresolved questions" about whether members of the Trump campaign who had contact with Russians were working "on their behalf, either wittingly or unwittingly_ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 21, 2018 4:26 PM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 21, 2018 4:26 PM UTC President Donald Trump harshly criticized former CIA director John Brennan in a series of tweets quoting a guest on “Fox & Friends” just hours before he swore in the agency’s new director. Over the course of three tweets Monday, Trump quoted a lengthy criticism of Brennan from Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and congressional candidate, that aired on Fox News that morning. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/998532136578748425) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/998534123399663616) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/998537117180588033) While he was at the CIA, Brennan largely avoided the spotlight, but in recent months he’s become an outspoken critic of Trump, often lambasting his decisions and character on Twitter. In response to news that Trump had referred to Haiti, El Salvador and African countries “shitholes,” Brennan argued the president “continues to demonstrate daily that he is a deeply flawed person.” > [](https://twitter.com/johnbrennan/status/951602460853927937) In interviews (Brennan is an MSNBC commentator) he has suggested that Trump has made glowing statements about President Vladimir Putin because the Russian government “[may have something on \[Trump\] personally](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/us/politics/john-brennan-trump-putin.html).” He has also said that he thinks Trump is “[dishonest. He lacks integrity. He has very questionable ethics and morality.](https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/04/26/606021805/free-to-speak-ex-cia-chief-john-brennan-takes-on-trump)” And on Sunday, after Trump demanded that the Department of Justice investigate “whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes,” Brennan again weighed in on Twitter: > [](https://twitter.com/JohnBrennan/status/998301133545312259) Trump’s tweets came just hours before Trump attended the swearing-in ceremony for [Gina Haspel](http://time.com/5281461/gina-haspel-cia-confirm/), the first woman to lead the CIA. ## Transcript I know what the Russians try to do, they try to sub born individuals and they try to get individuals including US persons to act on their behalf either willingly or unwillingly. And I was worried by a number of the contacts that te Russians have with US persons, And so therefore by the time I left office on January 20th I had unreserved questions in my mind as to whether or not the Russians had been successful in getting US persons involved in the campaign or not to work on their behalf. Again, either in a witting or unwitting fashion. And so, therefore, I felt as though the FBI investigation was certainly well- founded and needed to look into those issues. I don't know Whether or not such collusion, and that's your term, such collusion existed. I don't know. But I know that there was a sufficient basis of information and intelligence that required further investigation by the bureau to determine whether or not U. S. persons were actively conspiring, colluding with Russian officials. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5285480/donald-trump-john-brennan-cia-twitter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5285480/donald-trump-john-brennan-cia-twitter/"},"headline":"Here's Why Donald Trump Is Criticizing Former CIA Director John Brennan","datePublished":"2018-05-21T16:26:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T09:28:16.777Z","description":"President Donald Trump harshly criticized former CIA director John Brennan in a series of tweets quoting a guest on \"Fox & Friends\" just hours before...","url":"https://time.com/5285480/donald-trump-john-brennan-cia-twitter/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","intelligence","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23ba4c12dc70ada6/6988cecfbc6cfc502e3e1864/trump-allies-stumble-russia-probes-move-closer-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23ba4c12dc70ada6/6988cecfbc6cfc502e3e1864/trump-allies-stumble-russia-probes-move-closer-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump-allies-stumble-russia-probes-move-closer-white-house","caption":"trump-allies-stumble-russia-probes-move-closer-white-house","creditText":"Al Drago—The New York Times/Redux","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5285480/donald-trump-john-brennan-cia-twitter/","name":"Here's Why Donald Trump Is Criticizing Former CIA Director John Brennan"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Former CIA Director 'Concerned' About Contacts Between Trump Campaign and Russia","description":"Former CIA Director John Brennan says he had \"unresolved questions\" about whether members of the Trump campaign who had contact with Russians were working \"on their behalf, either wittingly or unwittingly","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/R6YzPr5R/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-05-23T15:56:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/R6YzPr5R.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5285480/donald-trump-john-brennan-cia-twitter/","duration":"PT1M6S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5285480/donald-trump-john-brennan-cia-twitter/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```