And I know maybe sometimes you haven't got the backing that you've wanted and you're going to get so much backing. So Trump's ingratiating message was welcome after months of attacks, including an outrageous comparison of intelligence community leaders to Nazis.
Trump has been accused of undermining the intelligence community by questioning its findings in regard to alleged Russian intervention in the November election and likening the analysis to the false intelligence that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The next day, after Trump had thanked those in the room who voted for him, his aides went on TV to insinuate-as Trump has often done-that hostile elements in the intelligence community had leaked dirt on him and should get out. Trump's team was not happy about that, as White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus clapped back saying that the former director should be punished for media reports that the president's relationship with USA intelligence agencies is less than ideal.
"After he finished ranting about crowd sizes on the National Mall, I hope President Trump sat down for an interview with the Central Intelligence Agency to help with their investigation into his team's possible collusion with the Kremlin to win the election", said Zac Petkanas, a senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee.
In a tweet from January 3, Trump said: "The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case", placing quotes around the word "intelligence".
"While a Saturday visit is unusual - my view is that there is not a moment to waste in trying to fix relations with the agency", said a former senior USA intelligence official.
"Very easy to use them, but I won't use them because they've made such bad decisions", Mr. Trump said in a Fox News interview last August. There were some people who had to be off-camera for obvious reasons, but I think when you looked at the number of people who were there. the audio alone speaks volumes to what had happened.
"These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction", the statement said.
The visit comes amid questions regarding the status of Trump's choice to run the agency, Rep. Mike Pompeo. Former U.S. President Barack Obama also blamed Putin for prolonging Syria's bloody civil war.
Trump is a voracious consumer of news and highly sensitive to criticism. But as he spoke in front of a wall with 117 stars marking spies who died while serving, Trump quickly shifted back to campaign mode - boasting about his achievements, lodging grievances against the media and making off-the-cuff observations. All the world's a stage to Trump. He made no mention of his repeated criticism of the intelligence agencies following the election, including his public challenges of their high-confidence assessment that Russian Federation meddled in the White House race to help him win. One jogger along the route lifted both of his middle fingers as he was running.