According to Edward Price, an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); it was when he saw the black smoke rising from the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, that he decided he wanted to go into public service.

In an interview with NPR News, Edward Price – now former CIA analyst – made a recent decision to leave the intelligence community in what was considered a similar reaction to the metaphorical “black smoke” coming from Washington after Donald Trump's inauguration.

Edward Price offended by Trump's unconventional Langley speech

The way the former CIA analyst describes it, President Trump's constant bragging in front of the intelligence community at Langley on his first full day as president is one of the causes of his resignation.

“And he stood there, and he bragged about the size of the crowds at his inauguration the previous day. And all I could think about as I watched him in disbelief was a mentor of mine who lost her life and whose star was obscured by our new commander in chief.”

That mentor to Edward Price was Jessica Matthews who was killed by a suicide bomber in Khost, Afghanistan in 2009. In 2010 the intelligence community honored Matthews when the CIA memorial wall was unveiled for the first time, the same wall that President Trump stood in front of when Edward Price was in the room.

Criticism from other officials

Originally, it was former acting Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta who presided over the ceremony seven years ago who has also publicly condemned President Trump, even recently going on “Meet The Press,” to say that the President's handling of national security during his first month in office was dysfunctional.

Edward Price wrote an op-ed piece called: “I didn't think I'd ever leave the CIA. But because of Trump, I quit” for the Washington Post about his resignation where the former analyst goes into further detail.

In it, he described sitting through Trump's speech where he talked about winning the election and how much he hated the press while standing before the same wall.

Apparently, that was not the last straw. The last straw was when President Trump put people with little to no qualifications on the National Security Council, such as Steve Bannon and Steven Miller. Edward Price had been with the CIA since 2005 and served under Presidents Bush and Obama for who he was also a part of the National Security Council for the last three years.

Trump defies intelligence community

Throughout Trump's campaign and well into his first month as president, there have been many reports of possible dissenting views among the intelligence community against Trump. Much of this is due to the fact that he has berated the community for acting on reports that he has ties to Russian officials who are accused of interfering with the presidential election when they determined the Russians had hacked into the Democratic National Committee network.

It is in this case that Edward Price seems to reveal the thought process of what many presume is in the heads of many CIA officials. In his interview with NPR, specifically, he described how he wondered if he should continue as a CIA analyst to write reports that go to the White House to gather dust or if he should find a different way to serve the American people.

The reasons for Edward Price thinking his reports would be neglected by the President seem to hold some truth as Trump has reportedly refused to get daily intelligence briefings as well as largely ignoring reports he doesn't agree with, such as those leaked to the press. Concerning such reports from various divisions, he's also said that he doesn't like reports to be more than one page long. Following the resignation of CIA analyst Edward Price, President Trump has hinted at reigning in the intelligence community over leaks of information that led to the resignation of Gen. Michael Flynn.
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