The one issue that distinguishes MAGA voters from all the rest, Republican and Democrat alike, is their thirst to see true accountability brought to the federal government. They want to see corruption and the veil of secrecy protecting it rooted out, an end to the infringement of constitutional rights with impunity, and, specifically, a stop to the pernicious influence of the Deep State. All this was embodied in the call to “drain the Swamp.”
For all the positives the America First agenda promises – regarding the economy, illegal immigration, law and order, and foreign affairs – stripping power from the Washington, DC, cabal of unelected apparatchiks is what really gets the juices flowing for a great many Trump supporters. And that’s what they expect because President Donald Trump made it one of his main missions. How is that going? Have there been any victories or even any progress? Is the Deep State weakened at all, or is it holding ground?
You’re Fired!
The first step in this war was to get as many Deep State operatives as possible out of government altogether. By one means or another, the Trump administration has managed to shrink the federal workforce. Some of those who have resigned, taken retirement offers, or been fired were cogs in the Deep State machine. The president and the MAGA movement notched a victory, then, with the recent Supreme Court holding that Trump’s February executive order directing government agencies to plan and prepare for “large-scale reductions in force” was within his authority.
The decision from the nation’s highest court wasn’t even contentious, with all but one of the nine justices agreeing. There will be no prizes for guessing the name of the lone dissenter.
The roots of the Deep State can be found embedded in two DC cliques: the well-connected political operatives with their think tanks and policy institutes – most of them former government officials, but some still collecting federal checks – and the intelligence community (IC). These two groups are, of course, somewhat intertwined.
Some well-known characters from the latter clique quickly became targets for a great deal of suspicion and hostility from Trump supporters: former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, and James Clapper, an IC veteran who served as President Barack Obama’s director of national intelligence.
All three of these men have, over the past ten years, revealed themselves as rabid partisans who put in a great deal of effort to undermine and even sabotage Trump during his first presidential term. Despite their own protestations to the contrary, there is no evidence that, at least since 2017, any of these three Deep State desperados has allowed a love of country to take precedence over their hatred of Trump.
A Deep State Op to Trap Trump
Now, it has been revealed that Brennan and Comey are the subjects of FBI investigations. The known details of these two criminal probes are not extensive. However, they are both related to the debunked 2016 conspiracy theory that then-presidential candidate Trump had colluded with the Russian government to influence that year’s election.
A recently released CIA report, the subject of which was “Tradecraft Review of the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian Election Interference,” provides some background. The report details how Clapper, Comey, and Brennan personally muscled in to take over production of the 2016 assessment. That degree of direct involvement by the then-senior officials – and the virtual exclusion from the process of almost all 17 US intelligence agencies – raised a lot of flags.
The Tradecraft Review states it was “markedly unconventional” for these men, in their positions, to personally oversee the work. It describes “a highly compressed production timeline, stringent compartmentation, and excessive involvement of agency heads.”
The CIA review also noted that both Comey and Brennan insisted that the now-discredited Steele Dossier – the opposition research targeting Trump, bought and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign – be included in the 2016 intelligence community assessment (ICA). Brennan was warned by his deputy director for analysis that including or even referring to it risked “the credibility of the entire paper.” But Brennan insisted, saying that “my bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.” This, despite the objections of the agency’s top Russia experts.
Meanwhile, Comey effectively threatened to pull the FBI’s participation in the ICA unless the Steele Dossier was incorporated. The CIA Tradecraft Review notes, “FBI leadership made it clear that their participation in the [intelligence community assessment] hinged on the Dossier’s inclusion and, over the next few days, repeatedly pushed to weave references to it throughout the main body of the ICA.”
However, Brennan asserted under oath at a congressional hearing, “It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done.” Some years later, he told the House Judiciary Committee that, at the time, he didn’t believe the Steele Dossier should have been used in the ICA.
So, Brennan appears to have perjured himself at least once and perhaps twice. And maybe he will face consequences. There is no word about an investigation targeting Clapper.
The Epstein Debacle
One grave disappointment for MAGA country – and Trump, along with his DOJ and FBI heads, have set themselves up for a lot of flak with this one – is the sudden death of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Abruptly, America was told Epstein did, in fact, commit suicide in prison. Even if true, few are buying that claim. Then, after all the teasers about an eventual release of a client list, the official word is that no such list exists.
There is so much more to that story, but the bottom line is that some of the very people who long demanded answers about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation are now themselves in Trump’s administration and telling us there is no there there.
The war against the Deep State continues, if somewhat falteringly. Perhaps it will never be won. There is one certainty, though: If, during the life of this current administration, not a single prominent Deep State operative is held accountable – even if he is found guilty of some crime or crimes – then the legacy and memory of President Trump will be tarnished, even if he otherwise fulfills his sweeping agenda.
