Member-only story
Yes, Virginia, there is a deep state. No, it is not a problem.
The recent book by Bob Woodward and The New York Times publication of an op-ed by an anonymous member of the Trump administration all detailing a White House in chaos in which senior staffers work to stymie the President’s wishes has prompted Trump supporters to once again decry the so-called “deep state.”
Just what is the “deep state?” If you asked ten people, you would get ten answers. But Trump supporters appear to believe it is a conspiracy of government bureaucrats who run the government how they want to despite the wishes of their elected officials. Trump supporters claim these efforts to tame the President amount to a coup by those unelected bureaucrats.
Ironically, in this case, the Trump supporters may have a point. Legions of Trump opponents — up to and including former President Barack Obama — have condemned this behavior. They argue that the Trump critics operating within the White House are trying to have their cake and eat it too: they get to hold important government positions while claiming that they were protecting America from the craziness of Trump. Calling it a coup is not without basis, as David Frum and David A. Graham have.
To compound the irony is the fact that these stories are not examples of what Trump and his supporters would characterize as the “deep state.”…
