Firing Comey May Set Trump on Collision Course With US National Security State

By firing FBI Director Comey, US President Trump may have started a war with the national security state, in particular the CIA and FBI, analysts told Sputnik.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The surprise sacking of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey on Tuesday may have propelled President Donald Trump toward a clash with the most powerful agencies of US intelligence and national security.

"It is further evidence that in his decision to mock, deride and dismiss agencies of the national security state, in particular the CIA and FBI, [Trump] doesn’t have a clue as to the permanent, entrenched power of those he has picked a fight with," California State University Professor Emeritus of Political Science Beau Grosscup said.

However, Trump was wrong to imagine that he had broken national security opposition to his rule by firing Comey and even following it up with other sackings, Grosscup cautioned.

"Firing a few top officials will do nothing to undermine the institutional investigative/surveillance powers of those who hold his future in their hands," he said.

The sudden, unexpected way in which Trump fired Comey also revealed the impulsive, unpredictable style with which Trump is running the US government, Grosscup observed.

"President’s Trump’s firing of… Comey is significant in several ways. At the least it gives evidence of Trump’s hair trigger temper that rules his management style, most notably his anger at those who challenge him," he said.

Trump’s actions in dismissing Comey were consistent with his established pattern of trying to ensure his leadership by personal dominance and his rapid willingness to fire people whose loyalty he had come to doubt, Grosscup pointed out.

Trump in sacking Comey showed "his need to control people and events and his preferred action of firing (on display in his TV show) those deemed disloyal to him who he can’t tweet away," Grosscup explained.

However, Trump’s actions this week could also be interpreted to mean he had grown increasingly concerned about the political threat to his position as president that an expanded FBI probe into his campaign last year might reveal, Grosscup suggested.

"At worst, it is a case of desperate people doing desperate things and expecting to get away with it, as is his historical record in the private sector," he said.

However, US tactician and military historian retired US Army Colonel Doug Macgregor said Trump was correct to fire Comey.

Comey had previously shown repeated examples of political partiality refusing to energetically investigate serious accusations about various activities of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation.

"Trump is learning. Comey should have been shown the door on Inauguration Day," he said.

Trump had previously publicly clashed with the US intelligence community and openly criticized it over several controversies during his election campaign and after his inauguration.