In recent days, President-elect Donald J. Trump has rejected the C.I.A.’s conclusions that Russian hackers attempted to sway the American elections, and has accused unnamed officials within the agency of trying to undermine him. And he has rejected the tradition of receiving the intelligence community’s daily briefing, implying that he would rather rely on information and analysis from his inner circle of advisers.

It’s a disturbing set of developments, if only because we’ve been here before. Presidents face a great temptation to go “in-house” for intelligence that fits with their plans; some have even set up formal or informal operations to circumvent the C.I.A. and other agencies. In almost every case, the result has been a disaster — for the president and for the country.

The most obvious example is Richard M. Nixon. When, as president-elect, he interviewed Henry A. Kissinger to be his national security adviser, Nixon told Kissinger that he didn’t trust the State Department or the “Ivy League liberals” at the C.I.A. Once in office, Nixon tried to use the agency to shut down the F.B.I.’s investigation of the Watergate burglary, but he was rejected by its director, Richard Helms.