John McCain has said it was "one of the most disgraceful performances by a U.S. president in memory," and the mainstream media have echoed that view. Some have accused Trump of treason.

Not to take Trump's side here, but his abandonment of U.S. intelligence agencies has exposed some hypocrisy on the liberal Democratic side: their support for the security state and their inability to acknowledge the long history of American interference in foreign elections. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky on the PBS News Hour last night injected that realism.