Israel Was Source of Intelligence Trump Handed to Russians Like Candy

It was revealed by several sources yesterday that Trump managed to reveal highly-classified information to the Russians. During Trump’s controversial, closed-off meeting with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador—both of whom are named Sergey, naturally—the president managed to boast about information regarding an Islamic State plot. It was originally reported that a close Middle Eastern ally had provided the extremely sensitive information and Trump’s boasts could threaten to damage the relationship between America and that ally.

Initially, Trump and the White House did everything they could to remind America that what he did wasn’t illegal. Technically, it’s perfectly within his rights as president to “declassify” information to whomever he likes. Of course, it’s generally assumed that the president would abstain from revealing state secrets to an enemy country’s representatives, but most other presidents also probably think exercise is a good idea. So really this should come as little surprise.

Today, it came to light that the ally—whose hard-earned intelligence Trump was tossing about to whomever was within earshot and a threat to America—was, in fact, Israel. There was fear that Trump’s mishandling of classified information would damage the relationship between the two countries, especially considering officials say Israel specifically asked that information be handled carefully. Fortunately, in a statement emailed to The New York Times, Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said that, “Israel has full confidence in our intelligence-sharing relationship with the United States and looks forward to deepening that relationship in the years ahead under President Trump.” So maybe they’ll continue to work with the man-child-in-chief. For now.

It’s still unclear what all of the political fallout from Trump’s latest debacle will be but, hey, it’s not like he sent this stuff over email or something.