Trump was 'furious' that US intelligence chiefs humiliated him on TV: report

After the administration's intelligence chiefs testified before Congress and directly contradicted President Donald Trump's false claims about the United States' national security risks, he was "furious," according to a new report from CNN.

This fury manifested itself on Twitter in a baffling tirade against the intelligence community that concluded, "Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!"

But the tweets omitted specific criticism for Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats who, according to CNN, Trump called out by name while venting his frustration in the White House.

CNN reported that Trump didn't watch the intelligence chief's full testimony before Congress. Instead, he was provoked by the coverage of the testimony, which highlighted the official's divergence from Trump's claims. For example, Coats contradicted Trump's previous claim that there is "no longer a nuclear threat" from North Korea, saying instead that the regime is unlikely to "give up its nuclear weapons and production capabilities."

Trump has often reacted more poorly to the way the media covers certain events than to the events themselves. For example, he reportedly did not realize that former Defense Secretary James Mattis' resignation letter was as much of a direct rebuke as it was until the members of the media pointed it out.

A split previously emerged between Coats and Trump over the summer when the DNI director was confronted on stage with the fact that the president had invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington, D.C. Coats reacted with surprise and apparent distress. That meeting, though, did not occur.