Deep state in the United States
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In the United States, the
"deep state" is a conspiracy theory[1][2][3][4][5] which suggests that collusion and cronyism exist within the US political
system and constitute a hidden government within the legitimately elected
government.[6][7][8][9][10] Author Mike Lofgren claims that there is
"a hybrid association of elements of government and parts of top-level
finance and industry that is effectively able to govern the United States
without reference to the consent of the
governed as expressed through the formal political
process",[11] or consider the deep state
to encompass corruption prevalent among career politicians and civil servants.[12]
The term was originally coined
to refer to a relatively invisible state apparatus in Turkey "composed of high-level
elements within the intelligence services, military, security, judiciary, and
organized crime" and similar alleged networks in other countries including
Egypt, Ukraine, Spain, Colombia, Italy, Israel, and many others.[12]
Contents
Definition
Main article: Deep state
According to the journalist
Robert Worth, "the expression deep state had originated in Turkey
in the 1990s, where the military colluded with drug traffickers and hit men to wage a
dirty war against Kurdish insurgents".[13] The term "deep
state" is likely a translation from the Turkish derin devlet
(literally: "deep state" = "deep polity").[14]
In The Concealment of
the State, Professor Jason Royce Lindsey argues that even without a
conspiratorial agenda, the term deep state is useful for understanding
aspects of the national
security establishment in developed countries, with emphasis on
the United States. Lindsey writes that the deep state draws power from the
national security and intelligence communities, a realm where secrecy is a
source of power.[15]:35–36 Alfred W. McCoy states that the
increase in the power of the U.S.
intelligence community since the September 11
attacks "has built a fourth branch of the U.S.
government" that is "in many ways autonomous from the executive, and
increasingly so."[16]
In a Foreign Affairs journal article and
subsequent expansion in a law review, UCLA Law
professor Jon D. Michaels rejects "the premise of an American deep state”
in a defense of what he terms the 'administrative state' against Trump's
attempts to “deconstruct" it. Michaels argues that the concept of the
'deep state' is more relevant to developing governments such as Egypt, Pakistan
and Turkey,
"where shadowy elites in the military and government ministries have been
known to countermand or simply defy democratic directives" than the United
States "where governmental power structures are almost entirely
transparent".[17][18]
In May 2017, former
Democratic U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich stated in an interview
on Fox News that a deep state within the bureaucracy is trying to destroy
Trump's presidency. He further elaborated "The political process of the
United States of America [is] under attack by intelligence agencies and
individuals in those agencies...You have politicization of agencies that is
resulting in leaks from anonymous, unknown people and the intention is to take
down a president...Now this is very dangerous to America. It's a threat to our
republic, it constitutes a clear and present danger to our way of life. So we
have to be asking, what is the motive of these people? Who's putting these
leaks out? Why doesn't somebody come forward and make a charge and put their
name and reputation behind it, instead of attacking through the media and not
substantiating their position?" In an interview several months earlier
Kucinich said "What's at the core of this is an effort by some in the
intelligence community to upend any positive relationship between the U.S. and
Russia...There are people trying to separate the U.S. and Russia so this
military-industrial-intel axis can cash in.”[19][20]
According to David Gergen, quoted in Time magazine, the term has been
appropriated by Steve Bannon
and Breitbart News
and other supporters of the Trump
Administration in order to delegitimize the critics of the
current presidency.[21] The 'deep state' theory has
been dismissed by authors for The New York Times[22] and New York Observer.[23] University of Miami
Professor Joseph Uscinski
says, "The concept has always been very popular among conspiracy
theorists, whether they call it a deep state or something else."[24]
Former NSA leaker Edward Snowden has used the term
generally to refer to the influence of civil
servants over elected officials: "the deep state is not
just the intelligence agencies, it is really a way of referring to the career
bureaucracy of government. These are officials who sit in powerful positions,
who don't leave when presidents do, who watch presidents come and go ...
they influence policy, they influence presidents."[25]
In an opinion piece by
linguist Geoffrey Nunberg,
he said the "deep state" is an "elastic label – depending on the
occasion" and its "story conforms to the intricate grammar of those
conspiracy narratives". He also contrasted the change in the "twin
bogeys of conservative rhetoric", from bureaucratic "meddlesome
bunglers" of "big government" to "conniving
ideologues" who "orchestrates complex schemes".[26]
According to political
scientist George Friedman,
the Deep State has been in place since 1871 and continues beneath the federal
government, controlling and frequently reshaping policies; in this view the
U.S. civil service,
was created to limit the power of the president. Prior to 1871, the president
could select federal employees, all of whom served at the pleasure of the
president. This is no longer the case.[27]
On March 20, 2018, Senator Rand Paul said "Absolutely
there is a deep state because the deep state is the intelligence communities
that do not have oversight." He continued, "There is no skeptic"
[emphasis in original] among the four Republican and four Democratic Senators
"who are supposedly" providing oversight, so that the intelligence
communities, "with their enormous power ... have become a deep
state."[28] On December 4, 2018, Paul,
in commenting on the CIA Director briefing only those eight Senators rather
than the entire Senate, he added "Do you want to know what the deep state
is? The CIA Director is coming to the US Senate and only briefing a select few
members of the Senate. Why shouldn't every senator know what is going on? The
deep state wants to keep everyone in the dark. This is just ridiculous"[29] On December 10, 2018, he
said "The very definition of a 'deep state' is when the very people,
congressional leaders – people who are elected by the people – are not allowed
to hear the intelligence."[30]
Writing in a piece for the Moyers & Company website, John
Light asserts that the term deep state "has been used for decades abroad
to describe any network of entrenched government officials who function
independently from elected politicians and work toward their own ends,"
but during the era of Trump the term has been twisted to mean "a sub
rosa part of the liberal establishment, that crowd resistant to the reality
TV star's insurgent candidacy all along."[31]
In February 2020, Trump
cabinet member and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, when asked if a deep
state working against President Trump exists, stated that it was
"absolutely, 100% true".[32]
Michael
Crowley, senior foreign affairs correspondent for Politico, wrote, "Beneath the
politics of convenience is the reality that a large segment of the United
States government really does operate without much transparency or public
scrutiny, and has abused its awesome powers in myriad ways."[33]
U.S. politics
The term "deep
state" has been associated with the "military–industrial
complex" by Mike Lofgren, who has identified this complex
as the private part of the deep state.[34] However, Marc Ambinder has suggested that a myth
about the "deep state" is that it functions as one entity; in
reality, he states, "the deep state contains multitudes, and they are
often at odds with one another."[35]
Tufts University professor Michael J. Glennon
claimed that President Barack Obama
did not succeed in resisting and/or changing what he calls the "double
government": the defense and national security network.[36] Mike Lofgren felt Obama was
pushed into the Afghanistan
"surge" in 2009.[11] Another major campaign
promise Obama made was the closure of Guantanamo
Bay Prison Camp, which he was unable to accomplish. This has
been attributed indirectly to the influence of a deep state.[21]
President Donald Trump's
supporters use the term to refer to allegations that intelligence officers and executive
branch officials guide policy through leaking or other internal means.[37][22] According to a July 2017
report by the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs, "the Trump administration was
being hit by national security leaks 'on a nearly daily basis' and at a far
higher rate than its predecessors encountered".[38]
Trump and Steve Bannon, his former chief
strategist, have both made allegations about a deep state which they believe is
interfering with the president's agenda.[39][40][41] In 2018, describing the deep
state as an "entrenched bureaucracy", Trump accused the United
States Department of Justice "of being part of the 'deep
state'" in a statement advocating the prosecution of Huma Abedin.[42] Some Trump allies and
right-wing media outlets have alleged that former president Barack Obama is
coordinating a deep state resistance to Trump.[39][43] While the belief in a deep
state is popular among Trump supporters, critics maintain that it has no basis
in reality,[44] arguing that the sources of
the leaks frustrating the Trump administration lack the organizational depth of
deep states in other countries. Critics also warned that use of the term in the
U.S. could undermine confidence in vital institutions and be used to justify
suppressing dissent.[39][45]
The Washington Post's long-time conservative columnist, Charles Krauthammer
said of the belief in a Deep State:
I don’t believe in the tooth
fairy, the Knights Templar,
Bilderberg,
the Protocols
of the Elders of Zion, a vast right wing conspiracy, or, for
that matter, a vast left wing conspiracy. Are there in the U.S. government
individual bureaucrats that are Democratic holdovers that would love nothing
more than to damage Trump? Yeah, of course there are. Is there a concealed web
of conspirators, malevolent permanent hidden shadow government? Rubbish. And I
would add that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone without the help of Ted Cruz’s
father.[6]
Rolling Stone magazine, which reported Krauthammer's
comment, summarizes the Deep State concept this way: "Is there actually a
deep state? If you mean entrenched bureaucracy, then of course there is. If you
mean a government-wide conspiracy, then the answer is almost certainly
no."[6] Salon magazine traces Donald
Trump's belief in a Deep State to conspiracy theorist
Alex Jones of Infowars, who, it says,
"believes that the government – a.k.a. the "deep state" – has
orchestrated attacks and events throughout history. This includes the bombing of the
Oklahoma City federal building, the massacre
at Sandy Hook (he claims that many of the parents were actors),
the Boston Marathon
attack, and on and on," including believing that the 9/11 attack
was "executed by the United States government." The magazine also
points to Trump's long-time ally, Roger Stone, as an influence. Stone has
written several books which center on conspiracy theories, and blames Lyndon Johnson for the death of
President John F. Kennedy,
and alleges that Ted Cruz's father was involved in that assassination.[7]
In an article for The New
York Review of Books, Michael Tomasky quoted Newt Gingrich as using the term in the
context of the Robert Mueller
investigation in July 2018, quoting Gingrich stating: "[Mueller is] ...
the tip of the deep state spear aimed at destroying or at a minimum undermining
and crippling the Trump presidency".[46] Gingrich then added to the
statement that "the brazen redefinition of Mueller's task tells you how
arrogant the deep state is and how confident it is it can get away with
anything".[46]
Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at
Harvard University, has written: "There's no secret conspiracy or deep
state running U.S. foreign policy; to the extent that there is a bipartisan
foreign-policy elite, it is hiding in plain sight."[47]
The term has also been used
in comments on the "deep state"-like influence allegedly wielded by
career military officers such as H. R. McMaster, John Kelly and James Mattis in the Trump administration.
The anthropologist C. August Elliott described this state of affairs as the
emergence of a "shallow state": "an America where public
servants now function as tugboats guiding the President's very leaky ship
through the shallows and away from a potential shipwreck".[48]
On September 5, 2018, The New York Times
published an anonymous op-ed titled "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration"
written by a "senior official in the Trump Administration". In the
essay, the official was critical of President Trump and claimed "that many
of the senior officials in [Trump's] own administration are working diligently
from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations".[49] House Majority
Leader Kevin
McCarthy described this as evidence of the deep state at work,[50] and David Bossie wrote an op-ed at Fox News
claiming this was the deep state "working against the will of the American
people".[51] However, there was some
doubt as to the actual importance of the anonymous author, with some estimating
that hundreds or thousands of possible positions could be considered
"senior officials"[52] and the inherent paradox of
exposing the existence of such a group.[53]
Polls
According to a poll of
Americans in April 2017, about half (48%) thought there was a "deep
state", defined as "military, intelligence and government officials
who try to secretly manipulate government", while about a third (35%) of
all participants thought it was a conspiracy theory and the remainder (17%) had
no opinion. Of those who believe a "deep state" exists, more than
half (58%) said it was a major problem, a net of 28% of those surveyed.[54][55]
A March 2018 poll found most
respondents (63%) were unfamiliar with the term "deep state", but a
majority believe that a deep state likely exists in the United States when
described as "a group of unelected government and military officials who
secretly manipulate or direct national policy". Three-fourths (74%) of the
respondents say that they believe this type of group probably (47%) or
definitely (27%) exists in the federal government.[56][57][58]
An October 2019 The Economist/YouGov poll found that, without giving a definition
of "deep state" to respondents, 70% of Republicans, 38% of
independents, and 13% of Democrats agreed that a "deep state" was
"trying to overthrow Trump."[59]
Closely related concepts
Bob Jessop, in his book The
State: Past, Present, Future,[12] notes the similarity of three constructs:
- 'Deep state' – for which he cites Mike Lofgren's 2014 definition: "a hybrid association of elements of government and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern ... without reference to the consent of the governed as expressed through the formal political process".[11]
- 'Dark state' – "networks of officials, private firms, media outlets, think tanks, foundations, NGOs, interest groups, and other forces that attend to the needs of capital, not of everyday life" while "concealed from public gaze" (or "hidden in plain sight"), citing Jason Lindsay (2013).[verify][15]:37–38
- 'The Fourth Branch' of US government – consisting of "an ever more unchecked and unaccountable centre ..., working behind a veil of secrecy", citing Tom Engelhardt (2014).[60]
See also
References
Notes
1.
Barnes, Julian E.; Goldman, Adam; and Savage,
Charlie (December 18, 2018) "Blaming the Deep State: Officials Accused of
Wrongdoing Adopt Trump’s Response" The New York Times
Ruper, Aaron (June 17, 2019) "Trump accidentally undercuts his own “deep
state” FBI conspiracy theory" Vox
Jacobson, Zachary Jonathan (April 8, 2019) "How paranoia about the ‘deep state’ brought down
a president" The Washington Post
Blake, Aaron (March 28, 2019) "Trump and Hannity binge on conspiracy theories
in Trump’s first post-Mueller Fox News interview" The Washington Post
Hafford,
Michael (March 9, 2017). "Deep State: Inside Donald Trump's Paranoid
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"The Alex Jones influence: Trump's "deep
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Salon.com. March 10, 2017. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
Goldsmith,
Jack (April 22, 2018). "The 'deep state' is real. But are its leaks
against Trump justified?". the Guardian. Retrieved October
23, 2018.
Osnos,
Evan (May 21, 2018). "Trump vs. the 'Deep State'".
The New Yorker. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
Fallows, James (July 15, 2013). "The Impending Senate Vote on Confirming
Nominees". The Atlantic
Monthly. Retrieved October 21, 2018.
Lofgren,
Mike (February 21, 2014). "Essay: Anatomy of the Deep State".
BillMoyers.com. Retrieved October 18,
2018.
Jessop,
Bob (December 2015). The State: Past, Present, Future. John Wiley & Sons.
p. 224.
Worth,
Robert F. (2016). A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, from
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Scahill, Jeremy (July 22, 2017). "Donald Trump and the Coming Fall of the American
Empire". The Intercept. Retrieved July 29, 2017.
Abramson,
Alana (March 8, 2017). "President Trump's Allies Keep Talking About the
'Deep State'. What's That?". Time. 'This is a dark conspiratorial
view that is being pushed by [top Trump strategist] Steve Bannon, his allies at
Breitbart and some others in the conservative movement that is trying to
delegitimize the opposition to Trump in many quarters and pass the blame to
others,' said David Gergen.
Taub,
Amanda; Fisher, Max (February 16, 2017). "As Leaks Multiply, Fears of a 'Deep State' in
America". The New York Times.
Schindler,
John R. (February 22, 2017). "Rebellion Brews in Washington—But American 'Deep
State' Is Only a Myth". New York Observer. Retrieved June
13, 2018.
"How the "deep state" conspiracy theory
went mainstream". Newsweek. August 2, 2017. Retrieved
August 12, 2017.
"Edward Snowden: 'Poisoning people who are long
out of their service is contemptible'". March 18, 2018.
Nunberg,
Geoff. "Opinion: Why The Term 'Deep State' Speaks To
Conspiracy Theorists". NPR. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
Laura
Ingraham (March 20, 2018). "Rand Paul: No question that there is a deep
state". The Laura Ingraham Show (Podcast). Event occurs at
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Retrieved December 5, 2018.
Paul,
Rand [@RandPaul] (December 4, 2018). "Do you want to know what the deep state
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Senator
Rand Paul (December 10, 2018). "Compares Exclusive C.I.A. Khashoggi Briefing to
'Deep State'". The New York Times
(Interview). Washington, D.C: Associated Press. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
Light,
John (March 31, 2017). "The Deep State, Explained". Moyers & Company. Retrieved July 6,
2019.
Crowley,
Michael {September/October 2017) "The Deep State is Real: But it might not be what
you think" Politico Magazine
Ambinder,
Marc; Ambinder, Marc (March 10, 2017). "Five myths about the deep state".
The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286.
Retrieved August 9, 2017.
Smith,
Jordan Michael (October 18, 2014). "Vote all you want. The secret government won't
change". Boston Globe. Retrieved August 22,
2017.
Tharoor,
Ishaan (February 1, 2017). "Is Trump fighting the deep state or creating his
own?". The Washington Post.
Crowley,
Michael (September–October 2017). "The Deep State Is Real". Politico Magazine. Retrieved September 5, 2017.
Davis,
Julie Hirschfeld (March 6, 2017). "Rumblings of a 'Deep State' Undermining Trump?
It Was Once a Foreign Concept". The New York Times.
Rucker,
Phillip; Costa, Robert; and Parker, Ashley (March 5, 2017). "Inside Trump's fury: The president rages at
leaks, setbacks and accusations". The Washington Post.
Winter,
Jana; Groll, Elias (August 10, 2017). "Here's the Memo That Blew Up the NSC".
Foreign Policy. Retrieved August 15,
2017.
Lucey,
Catherine; Superville, Darlene (January 2, 2018). "Trump accuses DOJ of being part of 'deep
state'". Associated Press. Retrieved January 2,
2018.
Weigel,
David (March 7, 2017). "Trump and Republicans see a 'deep state' foe:
Barack Obama". The Washington Post.
Graham,
David A. (February 20, 2017). "Why it's dangerous to talk about a deep
state". The Atlantic
Monthly.
The
New York Review of Books, Michael Tomalsky, August 16, 2018. Page 8.
Walt,
Stephen M. (September 7, 2018). "The Battle for Crazytown". Foreign Policy. Retrieved October 20,
2018.
Elliott,
C. August (April 15, 2017). "MOABs win battles but they don't win wars".
ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Anonymous
(September 5, 2018). "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump
Administration". The New York Times.
Retrieved November 17, 2018.
McCarthy,
Kevin (September 7, 2018). "A Top Republican Fires Back at 'Anonymous'".
The New York Times. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
Bossie,
David N. "Anonymous NY Times op-ed shows Deep State thugs
are working against the will of the American people". Fox News. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
Concha,
Joe (September 6, 2018). "'Senior' official doesn't mean anonymous NYT
writer is close to Trump". The Hill. Retrieved November 17,
2018.
Chait,
Jonathan (September 5, 2018). "Senior White House Official Confesses Anti-Trump
Cabal in Newspaper Trump Reads". Intelligencer. Retrieved
November 17, 2018.
Staff
(April 27, 2017). "Nearly half of Americans think there's a 'deep
state' in US: Poll". ABC News. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
Langer
Research Associates. "Lies, Damn Lies and the Deep State: Plenty of
Americans See Them All" (PDF). ABC News.
Wright,
avid. "Americans skeptical of government, more
politically engaged, poll finds". CNN.
Retrieved March 23, 2018.
Morin,
Rebecca. "Poll: Majority believe 'deep state' manipulates
U.S. policies". Politico. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
Staff.
"Public Troubled by 'Deep State'".
Monmouth
University Polling Institute. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
Frankovic,
Kathy. "Americans who favor impeachment want President
Trump removed, too | YouGov". today.yougov.com. Retrieved
October 19, 2019.
60. Engelhardt, Tom (2014). Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars,
and a Global Security State in a Single Superpower World. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
ISBN 9781608464272.
Further reading
- Stewart, James B. (2019). Deep State: Trump, the FBI, and the Rule of Law. New York: Penguin Press. ISBN 978-0525559108.
- edia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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