Did Barack Obama order CIA to manufacture lose intelligence on Trump
Executive summary
The short answer: no verifiable, corroborated evidence in the public record establishes that President Barack Obama personally ordered the CIA to “manufacture” false intelligence to undermine Donald Trump; the claim rests on recent declassifications and assertions by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and sympathetic outlets, while longstanding bipartisan intelligence reviews and most mainstream reporting have not found proof of a deliberate, presidentially directed fabrication [1] [2] [3] [4]. Competing narratives exist: the ODNI under Gabbard released documents framing an Obama-era “conspiracy,” while other outlets, independent reviews and watchdogs describe the new materials as selective, politically charged, or insufficient to support criminal claims [5] [6] [4] [7].
1. The accusation on the table: what Gabbard and ODNI released
In July 2025, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard publicly released a set of declassified memoranda and a report claiming there is “irrefutable evidence” that Obama and senior national security officials “manufactured and politicized” an Intelligence Community Assessment about Russian interference in 2016 — wording repeated across ODNI releases and framed as proof of a years-long effort to delegitimize President Trump [1] [2] [5].
2. What those releases actually contain and how supporters frame them
The materials declassified by the current ODNI include emails, memos and an internal “Russia Hoax” memo assembled by the Director’s Initiatives Group; Gabbard’s statement highlights staff emails instructing an IC assessment and cites talking points and disputed drafting choices as evidence of politicization and selective sourcing, including references to the Steele dossier appearing in annexes [5] [2] [8].
3. The counter-evidence: mainstream outlets and watchdogs push back
Major newspapers and fact-checkers note that long-running intelligence reviews, Senate investigations and independent audits previously concluded Russia conducted operations to influence the 2016 election and that there is no consensus finding that the Obama administration fabricated the core assessment; fact-checkers explicitly labeled Gabbard’s “coup” framing as misleading and noted that the newly released documents do not establish the conspiracy she claims [3] [4] [9].
4. What bipartisan reviews concluded about the original 2017 ICA
Years of agency reviews and bipartisan Senate investigations affirmed that Russia engaged in cyber and influence operations in 2016 — they also found no evidence that votes were changed and documented disagreements among analysts about the intent and effects, which critics now point to as analytical disputes rather than proof of intentional fabrication [3] [7].
5. How partisanship and institutional agendas shape interpretations
Interpretation of the same memos has become a political Rorschach: the Trump-aligned media and some conservative commentators present the declassifications as validation of a long-held “hoax” narrative, while Democrats, intelligence professionals and many journalists warn that the release is being used politically to undermine institutional credibility and selectively amplify internal disputes [6] [10] [7].
6. Where the public record remains thin and what cannot be claimed
The released documents show discussion, tasking language, and analytic disagreement; they do not, as of the materials publicly posted, contain a smoking‑gun order from President Obama directing the CIA or intelligence community to fabricate findings to help or hurt any candidate — asserting such a direct presidential command would exceed what the current declassifications have been shown to prove [1] [5] [4].
7. Bottom line and what to watch for next
Absent additional corroborating evidence — such as contemporaneous directives from the president, credible whistleblower testimony directly linking Obama to a deliberate fabrication, or unanimous, nonpartisan findings from independent inspectors general supporting Gabbard’s criminal framing — the claim that Obama “ordered the CIA to manufacture” intelligence on Trump remains an allegation championed by the current ODNI and allied outlets but not established by the broader public record or prior bipartisan investigations [1] [4] [7].