One didn't need to read the fine print to see the unwavering intelligence community consensus that the… — Michael V. Hayden

That's a pretty clear warning. And a pretty good sign that American intelligence remains steadfast on this issue and, one hopes, more broadly in its commitment to objective truth. It's also a pretty good sign that phase four in the relationship between the IC and the president will be lengthy, contentious, divisive, and unpredictable. Stand by.

Beyond the lack of truth telling, there was the question of inclusion, with the campaign's emphasis on the politically convenient but somewhat amorphous "other"- immigrants, illegals, Mexicans, Muslims, and so on- as the root of our problems. The campaign broadcast a palpable sense of America less as a welcoming Madisonian "we the people" than a nation defined by blood and soil and shared history. If the campaign hadn't been conducted in English, we would have routinely heard words that evoked blood and soil like the German Volk or the Slavic narod. Lacking a good English equivalent, the campaign settled on "hardworking Americans" as an adequate dog-whistle equivalent. The label preferred by some in the alt-right was "awakened whites."

The travel ban was stopped by the courts, the amicus comments from security professionals being cited as one of the reasons for its rejection, before a modified version was allowed to proceed. But the effects of even attempting to impose such a ban will not pass quickly. Insults rarely just fade away. Honor patiently awaits to be satisfied. In the meantime CIA will be left with more of the weak and the merely avaricious, agents who will cut a deal just for the money, the worst kind of sources- and ISIS and al-Qaeda will (with more justification than they once had) claim that America and Islam are inevitable enemies. And all of this, I firmly believe, is based on a false, post-truth premise.