Matt Latimer is a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. He is currently a co-partner in Javelin, a literary agency and communications firm based in Alexandria, and contributing editor at Politico Magazine.

The news that Donald Trump will begin receiving intelligence briefings on Wednesday has created concern that the oversharing GOP candidate will be unable to resist vague-tweeting or otherwise blabbing America’s secrets to the entire world. That very worry was expressed recently by President Obama, who implicitly warned Trump against reckless disclosures, saying if presidential candidates “want to be president, they have to start acting like a president.” There is obviously considerable irony here: Obama neglected to note, of course, that it wasn’t Trump but his favored candidate, Hillary Clinton, who was recently criticized by the FBI director for her “extremely careless” handling of classified material.

Still, there’s reason to be worried that Trump will continue his campaign-long habit of warning darkly of dangers without delivering specifics—only now no one will be able to fact-check him because the sources he cites will be classified.


But there is another possibility—that a sobering look at the real state of affairs in the world will give the Republican nominee his first real sense of the sizable challenges in store for the next commander in chief. Unlike Secretary Clinton and nearly every one of the Republicans who challenged him for the nomination, Trump has not been immersed in the intelligence world. Since he’s never worked at all in the federal government, he’s never received a classified briefing, of the type congressional leaders and various Cabinet secretaries receive as a matter of course. This is a new world for him. Maybe, one hopes, these briefings will help him realize just how complicated that world actually is.

Having worked for a U.S. president and a secretary of defense, both of whom were privy to intelligence briefings on a daily basis, I know personally how these briefings can affect people. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine that any person would not be altered significantly by hearing and seeing firsthand the activities of people who seek every day to do the hard work of keeping Americans from harm. Knowing things before the rest of the world knows them isn’t always cool; sometimes it’s frightening. I had some experience in this area from my time in the White House, having learned about the looming financial crisis of 2008 before the general public had any idea that our entire economy was within days of a systemic collapse.

So what will the impact of access to America’s biggest secrets have on the candidate? Will we see a “Scared Straight” Trump or a “Scary” Trump? Which version of the following sounds more realistic?

SUBJECT: ISIS

Scared Straight Trump: “One of the biggest challenges I will face as commander in chief is confronting and combating the ideology that propels this hatred of our Western values. ISIS’s activities across the Middle East are an affront to every civilized society, which is why I am more committed now than ever to work with our allies in Europe and Asia and the Middle East. And, you know, in retrospect maybe this whole Obama founded ISIS stuff was a little silly. While I have many criticisms of the administration’s conduct with regard to ISIS, it’s a lot more complicated than that.”

Scary Trump: “Folks, I just got out of an intelligence briefing. What I could tell you right now about ISIS. Believe me, what I could tell you. But I’d get into trouble, right? Crooked Hillary can email classified info all over the place, but I do it, and I’m in jail, OK? Double standard by the corrupt and money-losing left wing media. Anyway, I’m hearing—now I can’t reveal exactly what I’m hearing because it’s classified—but I definitely can tell you that my Muslim ban on immigration was the right way to go. I can’t tell you why I know. But believe me. Believe me."

SUBJECT: VLADIMIR PUTIN

Scared Straight Trump: “You know, over the past few months, I’ve said some complimentary things about Vladimir Putin. But when you see the toll his actions have taken on his own people, when you see the threat he poses to his neighbors, and to all of Europe, it makes you realize that the Russian dictator has a very different approach to governance than we do. We can work with him, yes, but we also need to stand up to him whenever it’s warranted.”

Scary Trump: “Did you know Vladimir Putin can bench-press 300 pounds? Now, I can’t tell you where I heard that, but what a physique this guy has. I mean, it’s impressive, right? I mean, I hear some bad things about him, but I’m not so sure I can trust what I’m hearing from the Obama CIA anyway.”

SUBJECT: CHINA

Scared Straight Trump: “The United States has a very complicated relationship with the People’s Republic of China. The PRC is a rising economy that challenges U.S. dominance. China also is seeking various methods—called asymmetric threats—to counter America’s military power in Asia. The long story short is that we need a competitive strategy to deal with China—both as a partner and as a rival. And I didn’t realize how significant this challenge was until the last few days.”

Scary Trump: “So I meet with my intel team, right? Let me tell you—these stooges kept mentioning something called ‘the PRC’ and I was like, ‘What is that? I thought we were here to talk about China.’ So they say, ‘Well, that is China, Mr. Trump.’ And I said, ‘That’s not what you said. You said the PCP or the PRC or PBS, or whatever. Why make it so confusing?’ It’s not rocket science, folks. If you are talking about China, just say China. Anyway, I know all I need to know about China and I don’t need some pimply-faced losers from Langley who never go out in the sun telling me this stuff. The Bank of China has their largest branch in the Trump Tower in New York City. So, I know who I’m dealing with, OK?”

SUBJECT: NATO

Scared Straight Trump: “When I said that member states of NATO need to pay their fair share in the Alliance’s defense, I meant that. That does not mean that I believe NATO is a useless organization, nor that we shouldn’t come to our allies’ defense in their time of need. And yes, despite what I used to say in my speeches, I know NATO had started working on the terrorism problem long before I came along. In some parts of the world, the member states of NATO—the U.K. and Germany among them—are our closest allies. In some cases, our only allies. I’m proud of the work NATO has done, and the United States will stand with the alliance to counter threats to our collective peace and security.”

Scary Trump: “So I ask these guys in my intelligence briefings—they’re all geniuses, supposedly, which they will be the first to tell you—name one thing NATO has done that makes it worth billions and billions of American dollars every year. They started hemming and hawing that I had the numbers wrong or NATO has a lot of nice meetings or some such. Blah, blah, blah. Listen, after what I heard in my briefings, I realize that I’ve been right all along about NATO. Believe me. Believe me."

It’s too soon to know how this will turn out. But if Trump’s past history is any guide, it’s unfortunately easy to guess.