Will Trump's comeback reignite his war on the 'deep state'?

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to wage a war on the American deep state, by which he and many other Republican leaders mean a shadow network of bureaucrats, especially those in the FBI and the CIA, who secretly work in collaboration with private entities, foreign powers, etc. and hold power in parallel to the elected governments. In popular culture, deep state is believed to hold the real power over a country as governments come and go and often overrides the government's agenda. In mainstream discourse, the idea of deep state is dismissed as a conspiracy theory.

After Joe Biden decided not to seek re-election and endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic party's presidential nominee, Tulsi Gabbard, a Democratic Congresswoman who endorsed Trump and joined the Republican party, called Harris the "new figurehead for the deep state". "She is the new figurehead for the deep state and the maidservant of Hillary Clinton, queen of the cabal of warmongers. They will continue their efforts to engulf the world in war and take away our liberty," Gabbard said. Republicans have often claimed that the Democrats are controlled by the deep state.

Trump's pledge to 'drain the Washington swamp'

Trump has made it his chief agenda to dismantle the deep state and "drain the swamp" in Washington. In an interview to Time magazine in April, Trump spoke about his plan to dismantle the deep state: "It means we want to get rid of bad people, people that have not done a good job in government. And we look at people like a company would look at people. You know, when you buy a company, you go in and you look at, how do you like the job? Job performance. They have job performance standards. And yeah, we would like to get rid of people that haven't done a good job. And there are plenty of them."

In a campaign rally in September, Trump vowed to reshape the federal bureaucracy, ultimately eliminate the Department of Education, redirect the efforts of the Justice Department and fire civil servants charged with carrying out Biden administration policies that he disagreed with. During his first term, many of Trump's policies had met with stiff resistance from lawmakers, government workers and even from officials he himself appointed.

Trump's ultimate aim is to expand presidential power over government as well as concentrate more power within the White House.

Trump's war on the deep state will be largely based on reinstating what's called Schedule F - a Trump-era executive order that would reclassify tens of thousands of the two million federal employees as essentially at-will workers who could more easily be fired. Biden had rescinded the executive order upon taking office in 2021, but Trump - and other presidential hopefuls - now vow to reinstate it.

Experts argue Schedule F would create chaos in the civil service, which was overhauled during President Jimmy Carter's administration in an attempt to ensure a professional workforce and end political bias dating from 19th century patronage, as per an AP report form August. As it now stands, just 4,000 members of the federal workforce are considered political appointees who typically change with each administration. But Schedule F could put tens of thousands of career professional jobs at risk.

Trump will also hit at the deep state with a proposed efficiency commission to cut the flab which would be headed by Elon Musk.

What is Trump's Agenda47?
Trump’s Agenda47, a set of proposals his campaign issued during the primary election, includes a war on deep state. "Trump announced a bold plan to return power back to the American people by cleaning out the Deep State, firing rogue bureaucrats and career politicians, and targeting government corruption," the website says. "Trump announced a 10-point plan to dismantle the deep state and reclaim our democracy from Washington corruption." Below are those 10 points:

1. On Day One, re-issue 2020 executive order restoring the president’s authority to fire rogue bureaucrats.

2. Overhaul federal departments and agencies, firing all of the corrupt actors in our National Security and Intelligence apparatus.

3. Fundamentally reform the FISA courts, ensuring that corruption is rooted out.

4. Establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to declassify and publish all documents on Deep State spying, censorship, and abuses of power.

5. Launch a major crackdown on government leakers who collude with the media to create false narratives, pressing criminal charges when appropriate.

6. Make every Inspector General’s Office independent from the departments they oversee, so that they do not become protectors of the deep state.

7. Establish an independent auditing system to continually monitor our intelligence agencies to ensure that they are not spying on our citizens or running disinformation campaigns against the American people.

8. Continue Trump administration effort to move parts of the federal bureaucracy outside of the Washington Swamp, just like President Trump moved the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado.

Up to 100,000 government positions could be moved out of Washington.

9. Ban federal bureaucrats from taking jobs at the companies they deal with and regulate, such as Big Pharma.

10. Push for a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress.

Trump's campaign website says, "One study found that over a ten-year period, federal employees were fired at a rate of less than one in one thousand per year. Additionally, Congressional term limits are necessary to curb the rise of career politicians—the reelection rate for House members is 94% and over the past half century has not fallen below 80%. The re-election rate for the Senate in 2022 was 100% and has not fallen below 75% since 1982."

(With inputs from agencies)