and, now, as the one who picked the fight, it is up to him to come forward and sue for peace.
The intelligence community is made up mostly of ex-military guys. They think of themselves as patriots who willingly have faced danger and endured sacrifice for their country.
They and their military brethren, with who they work hand-in-glove, have had those sentiments reinforced, especially by Republicans, for decades now. They have been the recipients of non-stop positive propaganda (not to mention huge budget increases), especially since 9-11.
For them to come under fire now, from Donald Trump, who never in his life did anything for anybody but himself, or sacrificed anything for his country or anyone else, is too much for them to take...and I get that.
To them, Trump is no better than a turncoat. They see him as a guy who was born into fabulous wealth and advantage, and now trashes the very people whose task it is to protect that wealth, which will be inherited by his children and no-one else. I am sure that many of them feel that the Don thinks of them as suckers and losers. He has all but said so. He is getting now what they see as a helping of just desserts.
Trump can still salvage this situation, but he is going to have to take a step back, admit publicly that he made a big mistake calling out the IC and the generals, admit that he was a giant douchebag to ever tweet comparing them to Nazis, and apologize.
Tell me, Ned, Do you think the Don has that much character in him? I will say that I have my doubts.