Trump's unhinged Twitter rant exposes covert operation and threatens national security

In his latest bout of angry, early morning Tweets that once again left political observers stunned, Donald Trump continued to wage war on his own attorney general today for refusing to prosecute Trump’s political foes.

But Trump’s reckless tweets do more than sabotage his political enemies. They can also undermine American security.

On Monday, Trump capped a long day of Twitter offensives by attacking the Washington Post, and in doing so confirmed the existence of a convert CIA weapons program:

The Amazon Washington Post fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting Assad…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017

So many stories about me in the @washingtonpost are Fake News. They are as bad as ratings challenged @CNN. Lobbyist for Amazon and taxes?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017

Is Fake News Washington Post being used as a lobbyist weapon against Congress to keep Politicians from looking into Amazon no-tax monopoly?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017

Last week, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. had ended an operation to aid moderate rebel groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s long-running civil war. The CIA’s weapons and training program was initiated by President Barack Obama.

The move to shut it down was widely seen as yet another Trump concession to Vladimir Putin, since Russia had long called for the end of the CIA program. It was designed to put pressure on the Syrian dictator and to force him out of power. Putin serves as Assad’s key ally and intervened militarily on Assad’s behalf in 2015.

But the operation had always been a covert one, which means U.S. officials aren’t supposed to publicly acknowledge it. Until Trump did last night.

From former CIA intelligence analyst Ned Price:

If the media reports are true, the President of the United States just confirmed a CIA covert action program. On Twitter. https://t.co/fEmuqHDWN9

— Ned Price (@nedprice) July 25, 2017

In this instance, Trump’s thoughtless online behavior revealed a covert CIA program that’s being shut down. But given his careless ways, how long is it until Trump puts American lives at risk by outing active, undercover operations?