Hegseth and Gaetz reveal Trump plan to purge the deep state

Donald Trump’s nomination of Matt Gaetz as Attorney-General and Pete Hegseth as Defence Secretary have rocked Washington and show the President-elect is serious about purging the deep state

US President-elect Donald Trump and Florida’s Matt Gaetz.

The Pentagon and the Department of Justice are the early targets of Donald Trump’s major shake-up of Washington.

Attention is now swiftly turning to how deep the clear-outs are. Will Trump’s approach be to conduct a full rebuild after a scorched earth cleansing of the bureaucracy or will he be content with minor bureaucratic renovations?

The two key bombshell appointments so far have included Fox News TV Host Pete Hegseth as defence secretary and Matt Gaetz as attorney-general.

Both of these picks suggest Trump is deadly serious about purging the “deep state” and is leaning towards a scorched earth approach.

Already speculation is mounting that Trump’s overhaul will extend to the senior military and include firing members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This would be an unprecedented step, but no barrier for Trump.

Reports are circulating that Trump’s transition team is drawing up a list of military officers to be fired. One of the targets is thought to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General CQ Brown, who took over the job from Mark Milley.

Milley clashed with Trump and is quoted in journalist Bob Woodward’s book War describing him as a “total fascist” and the “most dangerous person ever.”

Pentagon insiders are briefing the media, saying anyone with connections to Milley will be swept-out.

Trump has vowed to fire “woke generals” and Hegseth has previously questioned whether Brown would have got the job after Milley if he were not black, asking “was it because of his skin colour? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt.”

A new “warrior board” comprising retired senior military personnel was also floated during the week by the Wall Street Journal as an instrument established by executive order that could remove generals and admirals lacking in leadership.

The appointment of Gaetz is seen also seen as get square move by Trump who remains angry at the investigations into him by the Department of Justice. His nomination suggests the overhaul of the DoJ will be sweeping and far reaching.

One of the key advisers on the Trump transition team, Mark Paoletta, declared earlier this week that: “If these career DOJ employees won’t implement President Trump’s program in good faith, they should leave.

Gaetz also has a score to settle given he was also the subject of a Department of Justice probe into whether he breached sex trafficking laws. No charges were brought and he has denied any wrongdoing.

“The hunters have become the hunted,” a Gaetz confidant told The Bulwark on Thursday (Friday AEDT). “This is not your grandfather’s party. This is MAGA.”

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 reform blueprint also recommended that an incoming Trump administration should conduct a sweeping purge of the DoJ.

“Ensure the assignment of sufficient political appointees throughout the department,” the conservative manifesto said. “It is not enough for political appointees to serve in obvious offices like the Office of the Attorney-General or the Office of the Deputy Attorney-General. The next conservative Administration must make every effort to obtain the resources to support a vast expansion of the number of appointees in every office and component across the department.”

Trump’s appointments of Marco Rubio as Secretary of State and Mike Waltz as National Security Adviser have been seen as more conventional picks.

But it is the nominations of Hegseth and Gaetz which have rocked the Washington establishment and provide an insight into his true plans to exert a new level of political control over the bureaucracy.