Throughout this week, the Washington Examiner’s Restoring America project will feature its latest series, “Reforming the Deep State: Reining in the Federal Bureaucracy.” We invited some of the best policy minds in the conservative movement to speak to the issues of what waste, fraud, abuse, and unaccountability exist throughout the federal government and what still needs to be done. To learn more about the series, click here.

President Donald Trump came into his second term laser-focused on dismantling the administrative state. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: unless we confront its favorite weapon — federal agency guidance — we are only swinging at shadows.