Summary: The big event of the Trump years might be the Deep State emerging into the sunlight in order to fight Donald Trump. Whatever the outcome, it will change America irrevocably.
There were great expectations for the Trump era. Conservatives believed he would Drain The Swamp, ratchet back our foreign wars, reform ObamaCare, get our allies to pay us for defending them, bring peace to the Middle East, reform taxes, and revitalize manufacturing. Leftists predicted that they would be jailed when Trump instituted his fascist state (after he canceled elections). After almost three years, the policy changes have been relatively small compared to those of Reagan, Obama, and Bush Jr.
But something has changed. We can only guess at its significance, but it might be big. It is the answer to “who are the forces pushing to eject Trump from the White House?” The Democrats and the Left, certainly. They seek to impeach Trump for purely political reasons. The Democrats have given 86 reasons to impeach Trump, starting on inaugural day. Some are serious and some imaginary, but none are as significant as Obama’s violations of the Constitution. Since they are not concerned with high crimes, the obvious reason to impeach Trump in his last year of office is to influence the 2020 election.
But the coalition attacking Trump is much broader than simple politics. Samuel Moyn, professor of law and history at Yale, in The Guardian states what should be (but isn’t) obvious to all.
“But behind the stance of permanent alarm and outrage adopted by the political establishment is a strong sense that what really irks them is that US democracy, such as it is, has toppled them from power. And after pining for so long for Robert Mueller’s investigation to be their redemption, they have now pinned their hopes on a ‘memcon ex machina’ {aka UkraineGate}.”
But this clearly misses a key element in this picture. From the beginning of RussiaGate, key players have been from the core Deep State: Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. With UkraineGate, military officers joined the game. Senator Schumer (D-NY) warned Trump on 3 January 2017 (before the inauguration): “Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community – they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,”
Revelation of the Deep State.
See this as a process. A year ago the great and wise mocked the idea of a “Deep State”, telling us it was a right-wing conspiracy theory (“conspiracy theory” is the STOP button on the liberal’s mind). We had learned a little about it from the Church Committee, but that knowledge went down the memory hole. In September 2018, the NYT published “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration”, an op-ed by a “senior official in the Trump administration.” It was a coy but open admission of the Deep State’s power.
“I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. …President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader. …many of the senior officials in his own (President Trump’s) administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda. …I would know. I am one of them.”
What upsets these people?
“Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.”
He ignores the powerful sanctions Trump placed on Russia. He refers to Trump’s attempt to negotiate detentes in our relationships with these nations. That has always been heresy to powerful elites who benefit from perpetual hostile relations with so many nations (e.g., they always opposed the arms control treaties that have kept us safe). In 1984 Orwell explained some of the many benefits perpetual war (cold or hot) brings to a nation’s rulers.
After a year, the existence of the Deep State is by now so obvious that even the New York Times admits it (although the concept remains apostacy to doctrinaire liberals). The first declaration in the NYT by the Deep State was an op-ed. The second is a news story by five reporters: “Trump’s War on the ‘Deep State’ Turns Against Him” – “The impeachment inquiry is in some ways the culmination of a battle between the president and the government institutions he distrusted and disparaged.”
It is an amazing document. First, it described unelected bureaucrats working in concert to thwart the elected President’s exercise of his Constitutional powers. Second, they believe the President’s efforts to fight back against them (“the search for disloyalists”) are illegitimate – because bureaucrats should have primacy over elected officials. The NYT reporters agree with both of these beliefs. They describe the Deep State at work while mocking the idea.
David Stockman more accurately explains how Trump has earned the Deep State’s enmity by taking actions (nothing so coherent as policies) that are contrary to the wishes of the Deep State {gated copy, open copy}.
Trump fights back
An adequate response to the Deep State is beyond Trump’s clown-like abilities. Nonetheless, he has slowly realized that they are his most powerful foe. Sebastian Gorka’s new book, The War for America’s Soul: Donald Trump, the Left’s Assault on America, and How We Take Back Our Country (2019), relates an interview with Trump – posted at the Daily Caller. It is, as usual for Trump, incoherent if not delusional. But it has a grain of truth – an important truth.
GORKA: “How are we doing, Mr. President, in defeating the Deep State?”
TRUMP: “If it all works out, I will consider it one of the greatest things I’ve done. You look at what’s happened to the absolute scum at the top of the FBI. You look at what’s happening over at the Justice Department, now we have a great attorney general. Whereas before that, with Jeff Sessions, it was a disaster. Just a total disaster. …But now we have a great attorney general. And I think with the destruction of the Deep State, certainly I’ve done big damage. They’ve come after me in so many different ways; it’s been such a disgrace. But I think it’ll be one of my great achievements.”
This might be the only significant accomplishment of the Trump years. He will not destroy the Deep State, breaking its hold on America. Too many Americans have given it their fealty. They believe its lies. They approve of its actions – even when they grossly violate the Constitution (e.g., this fine example, or personally approving treaties). But their fight with Trump might force Americans to see the Deep State, as the exercise of their full power brings them into the sunlight. This might change the course of America. Or it might be a milestone to our abandonment of self-government. Time will tell.
“When the plot is ripe it remains no longer secret.”
— Said by Gandolf in The Two Towers, part two of The Lord of the Rings.