President Trump has created a “deep state” of his own by installing loyalists throughout his administration, according to author David Rohde.
“I don’t know if, you know, this is a calculated thing by Trump or if he’s just reacting to the political maelstrom around him, but he’s — sort of under the guise of stopping a coup that doesn’t exist — Trump is steadily upending the checks and balances that have really protected American democracy for centuries now. He’s politicizing the Justice Department and other parts of the government to protect his friends and attack his enemies. And he’s basically creating a parallel shadow government filled with loyalists,” Rohde told NPR in a recent interview.
Rohde, the author of a forthcoming book titled In Deep: The FBI, The CIA, And The Truth About America’s ‘Deep State,’ said Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Fox News host Sean Hannity are examples of the president’s “shadow government.”
“Rudy Giuliani is sort of a private citizen carrying out this shadow foreign policy. Sean Hannity is a private citizen acting as a communications arm of the White House. And none of them, you know, have to answer government accountability government disclosure laws. They can all carry out their work in secret. So ironically, Trump is creating, you know, a shadow government without transparency, without democratic norms, without any kind of public process. And he’s creating a deep state of his own,” he said.
Trump has long railed against federal government employees whom he deems disloyal and disruptive to his agenda. His distrust of the people inside the government has intensified since his impeachment and acquittal, as exemplified by the president’s abrupt removal this month of the intelligence community inspector general who told Congress about a whistleblower complaint that sparked the impeachment investigation.
“The distrust by Trump himself and among his aides has just grown worse,” Rohde said.
