The Director of National Intelligence and His Unpredictable Relationship with President Trump

Although he is a familiar face in the US security community having held many important positions, the public is very curious about how Mr. Joseph Maguire will build a relationship with President Trump, whether he will choose "loyalty" to avoid the "mistakes" of his predecessors, or choose "honesty" as the most important factor in ensuring national security.

Mr. Joseph Maguire was appointed as acting Director of the US National Intelligence Agency. Photo: Fox News

The “excellent” choice

When announcing that Mr. Joseph Maguire would become the acting Director of National Intelligence, US President Donald Trump praised him, calling him “an excellent choice” and “a very talented man”. In fact, Mr. Donald Trump and Mr. Joseph Maguire did not have many opportunities to interact with each other, in the context of the new US national security policy emphasizing the threat from “competitive forces” such as Russia, China, and Iran rather than the threat of terrorism as in the previous period.

As the director of the National Counterterrorism Center under the Office of the Director of Intelligence since December 2018, Joseph Maguire has had few opportunities to appear in the Oval Office. Joseph Maguire himself admitted that his direct meetings with President Donald Trump were “very few.”

However, the fact that the two men do not meet often is not a factor that prevents President Donald Trump from giving Mr. Joseph Maguire "winged" compliments, because in fact, Mr. Joseph Maguire is a familiar name in the US security community and is respected by many people. This year, 67 years old, Joseph Maguire has held especially important positions closely related to ensuring national security.

Mr. Joseph Maguire has held leadership positions in many special units of the US Navy. Photo: Getty

Before becoming Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, he served 36 years in the military, achieving the title of Admiral when he retired in 2010. He also held command positions in the most important units of the US Navy, such as Director of Strategic Resources of the US Special Operations Command, Commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command, Deputy Commander of the Naval Special Warfare Forces - a legendary, mysterious unit that symbolizes the power and elite of the US Navy and is often known by the nickname SEAL Team 6. During his time working in the field of counterterrorism, Joseph Maguire oversaw a series of large-scale projects such as dealing with the terrorist group al-Qaeda or monitoring weapons of mass destruction.

So when President Donald Trump nominated Joseph Maguire to be the acting director of the National Intelligence Agency, many senior figures in the administration considered him a very suitable choice for a position that oversees up to 17 government intelligence agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), coordinates the collection of US-related intelligence globally, regularly reports and gives the President the best advice on threats to the United States. They brought with them a firm belief that a man who has devoted most of his life to national security will certainly lead the intelligence community with integrity and determination.

“Loyalty” or “honesty”?

Mr. Joseph Maguire became the acting Director of the National Intelligence Agency in the context of too much turmoil in the US intelligence community, when former Director Dan Coats and former Deputy Director Sue Gordon both resigned due to disagreements with President Donald Trump, especially on the issue of Russia's interference in the 2016 US election. Therefore, by choosing Mr. Joseph Maguire, many people believe that President Trump both aimed to stabilize the national intelligence apparatus and to find a "docile" person in managing information classified as sensitive - not only to national security but also to the President personally.

However, whether Donald Trump will achieve his goals or not is still an open question, because in addition to his experience and expertise in the field of intelligence security and counter-terrorism, Joseph Maguire is considered a mysterious figure, rarely sharing his personal views on issues that the Trump administration is most concerned about such as North Korea, Iran, and relations with Russia and China. Only once did he mention Iran with a view that is considered "pleasing" to President Donald Trump: "I think Iran is the most talented sponsor of terrorist organizations in the world". Many people believe that, to be able to survive in the White House, the extremely important factor is "loyalty" - interpreted as carrying out tasks in a way that "pleases the President".

Meanwhile, Mr. Joseph Maguire is seen as a straightforward and honest person. During his confirmation hearing before the Senate for the position of Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joseph Maguire also talked a lot about honesty, that he is committed to providing the most accurate information and analysis that the intelligence community has collected, giving the most specific forecasts possible, and not being afraid to tell the truth to his superiors. Joseph Maguire once affirmed his view that changing intelligence analysis to please others is against the national interest, losing the value of the intelligence community's labor.

Will Joseph Maguire be able to accompany President Trump for a long time? Photo: Getty

Therefore, although he has not yet expressed his views on the security concerns of the administration, many people predict that Mr. Joseph Maguire's biggest difficulty when taking on the position of Director of the National Security Agency is to establish the boundary between "loyalty" and "honesty", because there have been too many examples of people having to leave because of promoting "honesty" and "displeasing" the owner of the White House.

However, before he can seize the opportunity to prove to everyone his ability to build a personal relationship with President Donald Trump, Mr. Joseph Maguire will have to go through an immediate challenge: removing the word "authority" from his title. In fact, the word "authority" has always been the most difficult factor to overcome in the positions appointed by Mr. Donald Trump, and the clearest proof is Congressman John Ratcliffe - who asked to withdraw from the position of Acting Director of National Intelligence to give the opportunity to Joseph Maguire.