US President Donald Trump has achieved much in a few weeks.

He has driven a wedge between the US and Europe, threatened Canada, Greenland and Palestine – and launched a war of words against Ukraine. Under him, America is no longer a reliable friend or ally, to say the least. His creating such a schism between the US and Europe precisely serves Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wishlist

Staggeringly he’d rather listen to Putin apparently, than US intelligence agency advisers, unless he appointed them and they have no background in intelligence. The word in the intelligence world is that, although this was expected, he has actually surpassed expectations in upsetting US agencies such as the CIA. If he wanted to take over the world then for a dictator such as he is that might now seem like a rational and predictable ambition.

His outbursts about owning Canada, Greenland, even Gaza and his bullyboy outbursts against our allies in Ukraine seem to indicate that. But he has also created serious enemies in the military, which he wants to slash by 40%, and the intelligence community, the very people he would need to take over the world. CIA veterans who, unlike many, decided to stay and suffer his man-child buffoonery, were prepared. Or so they thought.

His daily briefings with the CIA have, I am told, been diplomatically edited to a page of summaries of world machinations down from three or four pages. This is how the spook community keeps the peace with such a hyper-sensitive and ignorant boss. Intelligence analysts spend a lifetime studying and probing immensely complex geopolitical permutations and possibilities. They know what they are doing, so much so that they rarely speak in absolutes because they know the world is hard to predict.

They predict the likelihood of what might happen after such and such an event and deal in the percentage likelihood of something being true, how another world leader might respond, what might happen next or years in the future. It is not an exact science and yet this would be impossible to convey to someone like Trump who blusters that he knows and can predict everything as it all comes down to a shabby deal. He detests experts, anyone he suspects knows more than him, albeit that this accounts for most of the non-Trump enthusiast US establishment.

That is why he despises them. So does he want to take over the world? Here’s what one former British intelligence officer told me today: “Trump is chaos. I do not believe he wants to take over the world but he wants to control a lot of it. He will disguise his obscene claims on places like Canada, Greenland and Gaza, even Ukraine, as part of his silly “weave” when they don’t work out. But here’s where he is dangerous on a global scale: those places he cannot control or own, he wants to smash up like a child. That applies to places and relationships. If he hates somewhere because it offended him, smash it up and the same goes for his relationships.

“Witness how quickly his relationship with Volodymyr Zelensky descended into insults just because Ukraine questioned Trump’s dishonest assessment of their President’s popularity. Serious questions have existed for some time about his relationship with Putin. Sure, he admires Putin, perhaps he’s even intimidated by him but the truth may have been in plain sight all along about why his actions fall into line with Kremlin ambition.

“But you could show categorical proof to his supporters and they still would not accept it. And here’s what respected former CIA man John Sipher wrote about Trump four years ago: “The Kremlin may well have nurtured a private but non-secret relationship with Trump over the years and developed a fairly deep understanding of his mindset and psychology. They may have determined that although he would be unsuitable as a controlled spy, he could well serve the role of a useful idiot or someone they could meet from time to time to put ideas into his head.

“So, while I do not believe Trump to be a controlled agent of the Russian government in the CIA sense of the term, he is clearly a useful tool to promote their interests. The Russians want to weaken the U.S. and sow chaos. Trump was the chaos candidate. Even if his assistance has been unintentional, his lies and cover-up provide the Kremlin leverage it could use at a later date.”

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