Former President Donald Trump has long campaigned on subverting the power the administrative state has over American citizens. Conservatives have often criticized unelected bureaucrats who create leftist policies within the federal government.
Since the early days, when Trump first successfully ran for president, he often vowed to “drain the swamp.” At the tail end of his first presidency, he passed an executive order that created the job classification of “schedule f” within the federal government, which stripped employees of their civil service protections, making them easier to fire.
Trump has carried this sentiment in his reelection campaign, where in 2023, he reaffirmed his commitment to “demolish the deep state.” The former president stated last year, “We will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. And we will throw off the sick political class that hates our country.”
Trump recently sat down for an interview with Time Magazine, where he detailed parts of his presidential agenda he will pursue if he defeats President Biden later this year. The Republican presidential candidate suggested that this time around, he would be staffed with loyalists and prepared to implement his plans successfully. “When I first got to Washington, I knew very few people,” he told the magazine. “I had to rely on people.”
Trump also spoke to Time about his previous Schedule F initiative, claiming, “You have some people that are protected that shouldn’t be protected.” Despite the effort that would have provided Trump with more flexibility in managing the millions of federal employees, Biden quickly rescinded the executive order when he took office in 2021.
However, Trump noted that, if reelected, he would reimplement the order and begin the mass firing of unelected bureaucrats. Axios said, “It would effectively upend the modern civil service, triggering a shock wave across the bureaucracy.” Russell Vought, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget, explained, “The mere mention of Schedule F ensures that the bureaucracy moves in your direction.”
According to Breitbart News, there are roughly two million employees in the federal government’s various agencies, which make up the deep state. Regardless of what party controls the presidency, these unelected bureaucrats stay in their positions, retaining influence over government policy. Therefore, they could counteract the initiatives of the current administration.
The American Tribune reported on “Agenda 47” last year, Trump’s plan to dismantle the deep state. “Here’s my plan to dismantle the deep state and reclaim our democracy from Washington corruption once and for all, and corruption it is,” Trump said. He continued:
“First, I will immediately re-issue my 2020 Executive Order restoring the President’s authority to remove rogue bureaucrats. And I will wield that power very aggressively.
Second, we will clean out all of the corrupt actors in our National Security and Intelligence apparatus, and there are plenty of them. The departments and agencies that have been weaponized will be completely overhauled so that faceless bureaucrats will never again be able to target and persecute conservatives, Christians, or the left’s political enemies, which they’re doing now at a level that nobody can believe even possible.
Third, we will totally reform FISA courts which are so corrupt that the judges seemingly do not care when they are lied to in warrant applications. So many judges have seen so many applications that they know were wrong, or at least they must have known. They do nothing about it, they’re lied to.”
"*" indicates required fields