WHY TRUMP IS SO THREATENING TO THE PERMANENT BUREAUCRACY. There was a moment in Sean Hannity’s Fox News interview with President Donald Trump and DOGE czar Elon Musk when Musk seemed to contemplate — as if for the first time — the existence of what used to be called the “permanent bureaucracy” and now sometimes goes by “deep state.”

“There’s a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the president and the cabinet,” Musk said. “And you look at, say, DC voting. It’s 92% Kamala … I think about that number a lot. That’s basically everyone. And so, if the will of the president is not implemented, and the president is representative of the people, that means the will of the people is not being implemented, and that means we don’t live in a democracy. We live in a bureaucracy.”