Donald Trump’s war on the ‘deep state’

Donald Trump says a secret network of powerful government officials is behind some of the biggest scandals plaguing his presidency.

The push to impeach Donald Trump has revived the conspiracy theory that the “deep state” is secretly operating within the bureaucracy to bring down the President.

The deep state is a supposed cabal of powerful, unelected bureaucrats working to exercise a hidden will of their own as opposed to that of the US president and his administration.

In Mr Trump’s case, the deep state conspiracy stems from the Russia investigation with an alleged bunch of career operatives in the State Department and the intelligence community hellbent on sabotaging his agenda at every turn.

During his term, Mr Trump has consistently blamed the deep state for trying to undermine his presidency amid formal investigations into his conduct — and argued he’s the target of a witch hunt.

And as the House of Representatives launches an impeachment inquiry into his now-infamous July phone call with Ukraine’s president, an increasing number of Trump backers have joined the chorus of those claiming the American president is being persecuted by the deep state.

Most recently, Mr Trump’s conduct came under the microscope after a whistleblower, an unidentified CIA official, revealed the President asked Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his potential election rival, former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Mr Trump and his Republican allies last week claimed the complaint was improperly filed. In tweets and public statements, they said a whistleblower could not submit a complaint if it relied on hearsay or second-hand information. As pressure mounted, the “deep state” theory again took centre stage.

On Sunday, senior White House policy adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News the whistleblower was a “deep state operative”.

“I know the difference between whistleblower and a deep state operative,” Mr Miller said, noting that he’s worked in the US federal government “for nearly three years”.

“This is a deep state operative, pure and simple.

“People who haven’t been in the federal government, who haven’t worked in the White House may not appreciate this, but the situation is you have a group of unelected bureaucrats who think that they need to take down this president.”

The inspector general of the intelligence community, the first to receive the complaint, found there were some signs of “political bias” in the whistleblower’s complaint.

But he concluded the allegations “appeared credible”. Furthermore, the general counsel in the office of the director of national intelligence said: “We have every reason to believe that (the whistleblower) has acted in good faith.”

Last week, David Rohde, the author of In Deep: The FBI, the CIA and the Truth about America’s Deep State,wrote in the New Yorker: “This is not a deep state. This is American democracy.

“In the weeks ahead, transparency should be increased, not decreased.

“When grave abuses of power are alleged, information should be made public, not kept secret. “Citizens should read the call summary and the whistleblower complaint themselves and make their own judgments.”

Charles McCullough, the respected fmr Intel Comm Inspector General, said public was misled on Crooked Hillary Emails. “Emails endangered National Security.” Why aren’t our deep State authorities looking at this? Rigged & corrupt? @TuckerCarlson @seanhannity

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2017

The House of Representatives seeks contempt citations(?) against the JusticeDepartment and the FBI for withholding key documents and an FBI witness which could shed light on surveillance of associates of Donald Trump. Big stuff. Deep State. Give this information NOW! @FoxNews

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2017

Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018

On Tuesday, it emerged Mr Trump had also asked Australia to “assist” in discrediting the Russia investigation after it concluded in March that the country had tried to swing the 2016 US election in the Republican’s favour. The probe led to the conviction of several of Mr Trump’s top aides for obstruction and lying to investigators.

An Australian government spokeswoman yesterday confirmed Mr Trump had asked Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to investigate the issues raised in Robert Mueller’s probe.

The official said Australia “has always been ready to assist and co-operate with efforts that help shed further light on the matters under investigation”.

“The PM confirmed this readiness once again in conversation with the President,” the spokeswoman said.

The revelation has fuelled allegations Mr Trump repeatedly abused the power of the Oval Office and risked longstanding relationships with allies for his own political ends.

Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State. They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2018

....Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t the FBI take possession of it? Deep State?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2018

The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy - & they don’t know what to do. The Economy is booming like never before, Jobs are at Historic Highs, soon TWO Supreme Court Justices & maybe Declassification to find Additional Corruption. Wow!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2018

Great new book by Jason Chaffetz appropriately called “The Deep State.” Very interesting indeed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2018

Mr Trump initially referred to a discredited conspiracy theory that cast doubt on Russia’s role in the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

The unsubstantiated theory contends that the DNC hack was a set-up based on fabricated computer records and designed to cast blame on Russia. One key figure in this supposed conspiracy is CrowdStrike, a security firm hired by the DNC that detected, stopped and analysed the hack five months before the 2016 election.

But ahead of the 2020 election, Mr Trump described the probe and its findings as a “deep state” conspiracy, pointing to conservative media reports as evidence and urging the Justice Department to launch counter-investigations. While many of Mr Trump’s supporters agree, critics have described his repeated references to a deep state as a strategic manoeuvre to deflect from the issues at hand.

According to The Deep State author Rita Santos, “to refer to career civil servants in the US government as some form of deep state is a clear attempt to delegitimise voices of disagreement”.

“Even worse, it carries with it the potential for fear-baiting and rumour-mongering and is really a dark conspiratorial term that does not correspond to reality,” she wrote in her 2018 book.

The New York Times, which first reported Mr Trump’s Australian request, said the White House had restricted access to the summary transcript of the Trump-Morrison call in a similar way to its handling of Mr Trump’s recent call with Mr Zelensky.

Several other calls and meetings between Mr Trump and foreign leaders, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, are now under scrutiny.

Separately, The Washington Post reported that Attorney-General Bill Barr had contacted officials and spies in Australia, Britain and Italy multiple times in a bid to investigate Mr Mueller and US intelligence findings.

— with wires

[e-mail] | @Megan_Palin