WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump said Sunday he was replacing Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, whose views on the threat posed by Russia often conflicted with the president's, with Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican and Trump loyalist.
"I am pleased to announce that highly respected Congressman John Ratcliffe of Texas will be nominated by me to be the Director of National Intelligence," Trump tweeted late in the afternoon, hours after Coats was reported to have met with him at the White House, resulting in the decision to part ways.
Trump said Ratcliffe, who was first elected to Congress in 2014, will "lead and inspire greatness for the Country he loves."
Coats, he said, would step down on Aug. 15. Trump said he would soon name an acting director to run the national intelligence office while the Senate considers Ratcliffe's nomination. By law, the director is the president's top intelligence adviser, with a mandate to oversee the activities of the nation's numerous intelligence agencies.
Coats, a former U.S. senator from Indiana, personified a certain kind of Washington establishment figure who found it difficult _ and ultimately impossible _ to maintain a foothold in the Trump administration. He follows out the door a string of appointees including former Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, ex-national security adviser H.R. McMaster and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. All were lavishly lauded by Trump at first, only to see the relationship turn publicly sour as differing views on key issues became apparent.
The departure of Coats will complete the near-total turnover of Trump's national security team since he took office. Mattis resigned as Defense secretary, and Tillerson was pushed out as secretary of State. Michael R. Pompeo, Trump's original CIA director, left that role to replace Tillerson. Gina Haspel, a career spy, now leads the CIA.
Trump and Coats have often found themselves at odds over Russia's interference with the 2016 election, sometimes very publicly.
The president, seeing the issue as a threat to his legitimacy, has downplayed Moscow's role at nearly every turn. Trump even sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies during the two leaders' news conference in Helsinki last year.
"My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me, and some others, they said they think it's Russia," Trump said. "I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this, I don't see any reason why it would be."
That comment prompted Coats to issue a public statement standing by the official analysis that Moscow meddled in the last presidential election.
A few days later, Coats was told during a televised interview at the Aspen Security Forum that Trump had invited Putin to the White House. Coats had not received advance notice of the invitation.
"Say that again," a surprised Coats asked the moderator, before adding wryly, "That is going to be special."
Future Russian interference has also been a key issue. Coats said that the threat continues and that the country is "just one click of the keyboard away from a similar situation repeating itself."
The next day, Trump made it clear he didn't see eye to eye with him. "I don't know if I agree with that," he said then. "I'd have to look."
The security chief again broke with Trump during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in January. He said he didn't think North Korea would surrender its nuclear weapons, Islamic State was still a powerful presence in Syria and Iraq, and Iran wasn't pursuing nuclear weapons yet _ all positions the president has publicly disagreed with.
Tensions between Trump and Coats almost led the intelligence head to step down in March. Reports circulated that Vice President Mike Pence, who was a protege of Coats', had to persuade the director not to retire after Trump's December announcement that he would remove all troops from Syria. Troops remain in Syria.
Ratcliffe, by contrast, is a prominent critic of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his investigation. He served on both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, giving him two opportunities to question Mueller last week.
A former federal prosecutor, Ratcliffe accused Mueller of overstepping his authority by declaring Trump was not exonerated of obstruction of justice.
"By doing that, you managed to violate every principle in the most sacred of traditions about prosecutors not offering extra-prosecutorial analysis about potential crimes that aren't charged," he said then.
Ratcliffe's appointment comes at an important moment for matters related to Russia. With the special counsel investigation over, Attorney General William Barr has been conducting a wide-ranging internal review of whether the case was handled appropriately. As part of that effort, Trump gave Barr additional authority to review and declassify classified material.
Ratcliffe could grease the wheels for that process at a time when Trump is eager to show that he and his campaign were treated unfairly.
