Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Matthew Continetti said Thursday that President Donald Trump's foreign policy is "in large agreement" with what his top intelligence officials tell him.
Continetti's comments came during an appearance on MSNBC's "MTP Daily," where host Chuck Todd brought up James Mattis's resignation as secretary of defense last month, saying it illustrates the pressure that Trump puts on his top national security officials.
Trump tweeted Wednesday that the top intelligence officials in his administration, who appeared to contradict some of his claims of foreign policy success while testifying to Congress the prior day, are "extremely passive and naïve," adding, "Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!" On Thursday, however, Trump defended his intelligence chiefs, saying the media created a "distorted" and "false narrative" while reporting on their testimony.
"They said they were totally misquoted and they were totally—it was taken out of context. So what I'd do is I'd suggest that you call them. They said it was fake news," Trump told reporters.
Continetti said that Trump's tweets do not necessarily have bearing on his actual foreign policy.
"There's Trump and his arguments with various people that take place on Twitter, and then there's the Trump foreign policy, which is on its independent course, and by the way, is in large agreement with what the intelligence chiefs said," Continetti said.
"Not on North Korea," fellow panelist Kasie Hunt interjected.
"I think [National Security Adviser] John Bolton is pretty skeptical about the fact of North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons. I think [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo is pretty skeptical [about] North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons," Continetti responded. "I think even Donald Trump is, but he has to play this role on the world stage, where he wants to be the diplomatic partner of Kim Jon Un, so he has to be more optimistic."
Trump announced Thursday that he has determined a place for his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as the president continues to try to denuclearize North Korea.