Donald Trump.
Credit: Reuters Photo
US president-elect Donald Trump has a history with the alleged 'deep state' — and a not so pleasant one. The president-elect has repeatedly blamed this supposedly powerful shadow state of being against him, ever since his maiden presidential term, which lasted from 2017 to 2021 and had him cooling his heels from 2021 to 2024.
As per Trump loyalists, the deep state is a supposed covert organization of federal employees in the United States (particularly those involved with the FBI and CIA) who collaborate with powerful and influential financial organisations and leaders to wield power either inside or alongside the elected US government.
The existence of such an entity gained widespread acceptance during Donald Trump's first term as US president, when he alluded to a purported deep state that was opposing him and the goals of his administration.
After securing a historic victory over his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, Trump has vowed to end this 'old foe' for good as he sets out to 'save' America.
Trump's 'Revenge'
Going by a recent speech, it is being speculated that Trump is coming after this 'deep state' as soon as he takes charge as the President of the most powerful nation in the world for a second term.
In a video shared by US political commentator and media personality Collin Rugg, Trump can be heard revealing his plans of dismantling the structure of the deep state, with a view to curb its power and keep a check on its influence.
Rugg, in his post, lists down the 10 ways via which Trump intends to constrain the power of the deep state, as described by the president-elect himself:
“Immediately reissue my 2020 executive order, restoring the President's authority to remove rogue bureaucrats.”
“Clean out all of the corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus.”
“Totally reform FISA courts which are so corrupt that the judges seemingly do not care when they're lied to in warrant applications.”
“Expose the hoaxes and abuses of power that have been tearing our country apart.”
“Launch a major crackdown on government leakers who collude with the fake news to deliberately we false narratives and to subvert our government and our democracy.”
“Make every Inspector General's office independent and physically separated from the departments they oversee so they do not become the protectors of the deep state.”
“Ask Congress to establish an independent auditing system to continually monitor our intelligence agencies to ensure they are not spying on our citizens or running disinformation campaigns against the American people, or that they are not spying on someone's campaign like they spied on my campaign.”
“Continue the effort launched by the Trump administration to move parts of the sprawling federal bureaucracy to new locations outside the Washington Swamp.”
“Work to ban federal bureaucrats from taking jobs at the companies they deal with and that they regulate.”
“Push a constitutional amendment to oppose term limits on members of Congress.”
US Department of Justice could be first target
During his first tenure as US president, Donald Trump and his advisers had claimed that the US Department of Justice was a component of the deep state. Further, Trump loyalists accused the Department of causing major disruptions during the Trump administration. Trump may focus on this federal agency in particular in a bid to weaken the cases against him.
However, it has to be noted that there is officially no evidence of such interference by deep state though Trump did have a acrimonious relationship with the top brass of several US federal agencies devoted to security and defense matters, both domestic and foreign, especially because of his 'closeness' to leaders like Putin and Kim Jong Un.
Moreover, many right-wing organisations and Trump supporters claimed that Barack Obama was organising a deep state backlash against the Republican president. Intelligence officials and executive leaders were apparently involved in influencing policy decisions be it by orchestrating internal leaks or through other means, per the Trump camp.