It turns out that when you publicly smear a presidential candidate and sign an open letter to the American public calling him a danger to this country, your services will probably not be required when he wins.

They are some of the biggest names in the Republican national security firmament, veterans of past GOP administrations who say, if called upon by President-elect Donald Trump, they stand ready to serve their country again.

But their phones aren’t ringing. Their entreaties to Trump Tower in New York have mostly gone unanswered. In Trump world, these establishment all-stars say they are “PNG” — personae non gratae.

Their transgression was signing one or both of two public “Never Trump” letters during the campaign, declaring they would not vote for Trump and calling his candidacy a danger to the nation.

They stand ready to serve their own interests.  They want back onto the public gravy train and are shocked that Trump isn’t like every other GOP member who bows down before the permanent Washington political class.  Get ready to wait a long while, guys.

“It’s hostile,” said this person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of further retribution. “It’s not just that we’re frozen out. . . . I was told they said there was an enemies list.”

When you call a candidate a danger to national security and publicly denounce him… you make yourself an enemy.  Why would Trump want them?  Their vaunted expertise?  These assholes are the same ones who screwed up US foreign policy for eight years under Bush, and they’re friends with the ones who screwed it up for eight more under Obama.  Trump can do better.