(CNN) Donald Trump has never been a big believer in the idea that Russia actively interfered in the 2016 election to help him and hurt Hillary Clinton. He's kept a healthy skepticism toward it despite the intelligence community and special counsel Robert Mueller's assertion that there is zero question that Russia meddled in the election to help Trump.

There's been much written about how Trump's willful blindness on this issue impacts the United States' collective efforts to keep future elections in this country safe. And that is a BIG deal!

But that's far from the only real-world impact of Trump's ongoing unwillingness to acknowledge a reality that is right in front of his face. Check out these paragraphs from The New York Times piece on the US conducting cyber-attacks on Russia's electric grid

"Two administration officials said they believed Mr. Trump had not been briefed in any detail about the steps to place 'implants' -- software code that can be used for surveillance or attack -- inside the Russian grid.

"Pentagon and intelligence officials described broad hesitation to go into detail with Mr. Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reaction -- and the possibility that he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials, as he did in 2017 when he mentioned a sensitive operation in Syria to the Russian foreign minister."

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