The president started his Friday morning by blackmailing the former FBI director. "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations," Trump tweeted, "before he starts talk to the press!"

But while that's a menacing threat from the leader of the free world, Comey has little to fear. Though not for a lack of effort or pricey gizmos, Trump hasn't mastered spycraft.

Ironically, the only one who seems to have bugged Trump's numerous homes, hotels, and golf courses is Trump himself. Before becoming president, he was known to run a sophisticated and closely monitored surveillance operation.

Citing four anonymous sources, BuzzFeed reported last June that Trump had a switchboard installed in his Mar-a-Lago bedroom to listen in on his guest's conversations. A second October report revealed a Washington, D.C., safe house that Trump officials monitored using closed circuit television cameras from New York.

Officials on his own campaign even felt like they were being watched. The New York Times reported last May that staff members feared that their boss had bugged their Trump Tower offices.

If those reports are true, then Trump's something of a spook—just not a very good one.

Before the election, he tried to discredit Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields' claim that she was thrown to the ground by Trump's then campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. After Lewandowski was charged with battery over the incident, Trump claimed that he had security tapes that exonerated his staffer.

"[Fields] said she went to the ground, or something to the effect of she almost went to the ground," Trump told Anderson Cooper during a CNN Town Hall. "She was in pain. She went to the ground. When she found out that there was a security camera, and that they had her on tape, all of a sudden that story changed. She didn't talk about it." But Trump must have been the victim of bad intelligence because when the footage was released it actually corroborated Fields' original story.

Knowing Trump's braggadocios nature, it's more than likely the president exaggerated the details of his conversation with the FBI director just like he exaggerated the Fields episode. And even if the president does have some tapes, by publicly blackmailing Comey he put himself at even greater risk. Trump just gave the Senate Intelligence Committee a heads up on what to subpoena if necessary.

All of this makes Trump a bumbling spy master at best, and means Comey should rest easy.

Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.