From Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats cautioning that the “warning lights are blinking red again” to reports that someone has launched a disinformation campaign to target 2020 Democrats, all signs point to the security of American elections once again being at risk. “We continue to expect a pervasive messaging campaign by the Russians to undermine our democratic institutions,” Matthew Masterson, an election cybersecurity senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security, told The New York Times Wednesday. “We saw it in 2018, continue to see it, and don’t expect it to subside.” Given all this, you would think Donald Trump would make tamping down on election meddling a top priority. And yet, according to the Times, the Trump administration has hit a major road block in its attempts to address the issue: the president’s fragile ego.

Per the Times, ex-D.H.S. chief Kirstjen Nielsen attempted in the months before her ouster to get the administration to prioritize the security of the 2020 election, having become “increasingly concerned” about Russia’s malign activity during the 2018 midterms. But her warnings were reportedly brushed aside, with sycophantic chief of staff Mick Mulvaney telling Nielsen in a meeting this year not to bring the matter up with the president, who still apparently regards any acknowledgement of Russian meddling as a cloud on his unlikely 2016 victory.

Election security “wasn’t a great subject and should be kept below [Trump’s] level,” Mulvaney told Nielsen in the meeting, a senior administration official recounted to the Times, “and should be kept below his level.” (In a statement released Wednesday morning, Mulvaney said he “[doesn’t] recall anything along those lines happening in any meeting.”)

Trump’s election-meddling angst has long been a pain point for his administration. The president has consistently cast doubt on the extent of Russia’s 2016 interference, going so far as to take Vladimir Putin’s word over that of his own intelligence officials. He’s repeatedly complained that claims of Russian meddling are an “excuse” cooked up by Democrats to explain away Hillary Clinton’s defeat. Others in his orbit have been similarly dismissive, including senior adviser Jared Kushner, who said Tuesday that investigations into Russia’s meddling had a “much harsher impact on our democracy” than the meddling itself.

That attitude has essentially forced intelligence and security officials to circumvent the White House to tackle the ongoing threats against the integrity of the American electoral system. Still, without White House support, their efforts represent a drop in the bucket. “The lack of presidential guidance to address this as a national problem impedes the ability” to carry out a more effective initiative, a former top United States intelligence official said last year, ahead of midterms.

Meanwhile, the warning signs keep coming. Tactics like those used by Russia in the last two election cycles are already being deployed against top Democratic presidential hopefuls like Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Beto O’Rourke, according to analysts. And yet, despite Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent vow to “make very clear to [Russia] this is unacceptable behavior,” the issue doesn’t seem to be very high on the administration’s list of priorities. As the Times noted Wednesday, it’s not just Trump’s bristling at the notion that he didn’t beat Clinton all by himself that’s making it harder to address America’s election security. The administration has made decisions, like eliminating the White House cyber-security coordinator position, that may have kneecapped the government’s ability to address the problem, even as 2020 looms. “Russian intelligence’s 2016 covert actions to divide Americans by interfering in our election were so successful,” Kevin Carroll, a former senior Trump D.H.S. official, told the Times. “Putin will amplify them in 2020.”

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