The Deep State apparently feared that a Trumpian insurgency within the ranks of the ruling class would end up pushing US foreign policy in “too far” of an “isolationist” direction. There seems to be an intra-ruling class civil war going on concerning the future of the empire between the liberal internationalists (Democrats), neoconservatives and traditional hawks (mainstream Republicans) and realists (Trump/Steve Bannon types). The realists seem to realize that the empire is overextended and can’t continue indefinitely without imploding.