Most of the conversation surrounding Russia's interference in the 2016 election has been focused on whether or not Donald Trump's campaign colluded with the foreign power. That's understandable, and justified. But a key piece of the puzzle concerns how Russia carried out its influence campaign, and how we can protect ourselves in the future so it does not happen again. As has been painfully obvious for some time, President Trump is unwilling to acknowledge, without hedging or equivocation, Russia's role in the election's outcome—much less outline any strategy for combatting interference in future elections.

A new, deeply sourced, thoroughly damning report from The Washington Post explores how Trump's narcissism and crippling insecurity about the nature of his electoral win have prevented him from properly responding to Russia. Here are three of the most glaring examples of how the leader of the free world's singular personal shortcomings are endangering the national security of the United States through a failure to protect the integrity of our democratic process.

Intelligence chiefs have to design their briefings to avoid "upsetting" the President of the United States.

U.S. officials declined to discuss whether the stream of recent intelligence on Russia has been shared with Trump. Current and former officials said that his daily intelligence update — known as the president’s daily brief, or PDB — is often structured to avoid upsetting him.

Russia-related intelligence that might draw Trump’s ire is in some cases included only in the written assessment and not raised orally, said a former senior intelligence official familiar with the matter. In other cases, Trump’s main briefer — a veteran CIA analyst — adjusts the order of his presentation and text, aiming to soften the impact. “If you talk about Russia, meddling, interference — that takes the PDB off the rails,” said a second former senior U.S. intelligence official.

"You can't handle the truth" just took on a whole new meaning. If you acknowledge reality in the presence of the president, you risk being on the receiving end of a tantrum.

The president has never called a Cabinet meeting to discuss how the Russians undermined our election.

Trump has never convened a Cabinet-level meeting on Russian interference or what to do about it, administration officials said. Although the issue has been discussed at lower levels at the National Security Council, one former high-ranking Trump administration official said there is an unspoken understanding within the NSC that to raise the matter is to acknowledge its validity, which the president would see as an affront.

They have to talk about it out of earshot, again to avoid offending him. White House officials cast Trump's reaction as "understandably human" to the Post. A human child, perhaps.

Our complete inaction is registering across the pond.

The feeble American response has registered with the Kremlin. U.S. officials said that a stream of intelligence from sources inside the Russian government indicates that Putin and his lieutenants regard the 2016 “active measures” campaign — as the Russians describe such covert propaganda operations — as a resounding, if incomplete, success.

...the Kremlin believes it got a staggering return on an operation that by some estimates cost less than $500,000 to execute and was organized around two main objectives — destabilizing U.S. democracy and preventing Hillary Clinton, who is despised by Putin, from reaching the White House. The bottom line for Putin, said one U.S. official briefed on the stream of post-election intelligence, is that the operation was “more than worth the effort.”

“Putin has to believe this was the most successful intelligence operation in the history of Russian or Soviet intelligence,” said Andrew Weiss, a former adviser on Russia in the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.

I'll say. Only 500-grand to install someone to undermine American democracy and the United States' standing in the world? Not to mention, until Trump vacates the throne, Putin and Russia will likely face no further consequences beyond the sanctions approved in the waning days of the Obama administration.

Standby for the president to scream that this is all Very Fake News. But you've been watching all this over the last year. Who do you believe?

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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