I have read many accounts of National Security Briefers, reporting that Trump did not want their information. A "cover story," about these balloons being discovered years after they were no longer in the air, is more palatable to the powers that be, than "He wasn't paying attention." If I were an analyst for a hostile, I would recalibrate my analyses based on that info/
It's just like you giving him a pass for letting this breach happen on his watch, rather than hold him responsible for people not respecting him enough to tell him everything. If Biden had let this happen on his watch, you guys would be all over him like a cheap suit.