“When Trump first tapped Ratcliffe for the post last June, Democrats and Republicans alike were cool to the choice. Ratcliffe had never worked in the intelligence community. And his connections to national security more broadly proved both tenuous — a few years as a federal prosecutor — and exaggerated.” That being said: The Senate confirmed John Ratcliffe as next director of national intelligence in sharply divided vote.

+ Ratcliffe’s first job might be to learn how to make nice, attention-grabbing pictures to describe threats to the nation. Words won’t do the trick. NYT: “Mr. Trump rarely absorbs information that he disagrees with or that runs counter to his worldview, the officials said. Briefing him has been so great a challenge compared with his predecessors that the intelligence agencies have hired outside consultants to study how better to present information to him.” (If this doesn’t seem like a big deal, see story 3 above…)

+ US pulls out of Open Skies treaty, Trump’s latest treaty withdrawal.