The second Trump presidency has brought a flurry of executive action followed by a predictable backlash from the president’s detractors. From denouncing Trump’s actions as overreach to filing pre-election-prepared lawsuits, the left is now uniting beneath a new narrative. A “looming constitutional crisis” demands the nation’s immediate attention.
This presents a serious question: is the current battle in Washington likely to cause a constitutional crisis? Democratic concerns center almost exclusively on Donald Trump and their belief that he is a dictator in the mold of Hitler. However, the fundamental threat to the constitution is not a single person; it is the administrative state.
Before discussion of the “deep state” was deemed conspiratorial, it was openly discussed. Journalists David Wise and Thomas Ross wrote of an “invisible” government run by the CIA in the 1960s. In 2016, just before Donald Trump’s first presidential victory, Mike Lofgren, a career congressional staffer, penned a book titled “The Deep State.” The book’s cover invokes distress, featuring an upside-down American flag. This highlights the severity of the problem described in the subtitle as the “fall of the constitution and the rise of a shadow government.”
None of these individuals are affiliated with Donald Trump or the Republican Party, yet they identified the root of the nation’s current constitutional problems. America was founded to reflect the consent of the governed. Its sacred document—the constitution—begins with the profound statement that it is “We the People” who created the government to secure a “more perfect union.”
Each branch of government plays a critical role in maintaining the integrity of the constitutional system. However, over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, the federal legislature has abdicated an enormous amount of responsibility and corresponding power to the executive branch through the creation of administrative agencies.
Shadow government and subversion of public consent
In our constitutional framework, the consent of the public is embodied through Congress. Yet the public is increasingly aware of Congress’s status as an emasculated governmental branch. As Lofgren describes, the deep state “operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power.” This should come as no surprise because the day-to-day operations of federal agencies are not connected to congressional proceedings. Although Congress may still regulate agencies, oversight is burdensome, and, in practice, agencies are not accountable to the public. Americans do not elect these powerful bureaucrats.
Thus, the growth of the administrative state fundamentally altered the balance of power in Washington. For over thirty years, the individuals responsible for handling the day-to-day affairs of the federal government skew to the left by a 30-point margin. In Health and Human Services, Democrats have a 44-point advantage over their Republican colleagues. The Justice Department does not fare much better, with a 43-point spread favoring those on the political left.
Unfortunately, while those on the left may be content with being governed by bureaucrats with whom they agree, the rest of the public is understandably uneasy with this dynamic. Additionally, the reality is that the disdain for President Trump among federal bureaucrats is so strong that nearly half of federal government managers admit they would ignore a legal order issued by the president based on their policy preferences.
Donald Trump’s commitment to destroying the deep state is integral to his political success and has strengthened in his second term. This is evidenced by the individuals he chose to run the nation’s most powerful agencies. From Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, and Kash Patel, his nominees share a common denominator: they are not members of the deep state club. Instead, like Trump’s constituency, they have been ostracized and dismissed by the agencies they now control.
This, of course, is precisely what the public wants. Most Americans are now aware the deep state has significant power over public policy, and facing the reality of an inevitable indictment, Donald Trump vowed once again to destroy the authority wielded by DC’s permanent class of bureaucrats. While speaking against the corruption of the federal government, Trump clearly stated the problem facing the public. “Either the deep state destroys America, or we destroy the deep state.”
Can Trump dismantle the deep state?
Thus, after winning the election, it should come as no surprise that Trump fulfilled another campaign promise through the creation of DOGE and his attempt to significantly decrease the number of individuals on the taxpayer payroll.
Because the administrative state is controlled by a collection of individuals vastly to the left of the overall US public, it should come as no surprise that Democrats love this shadow government. Trump’s disruption of their power source is causing understandable panic among those on the left who describe Trump’s hiring Elon Musk to oversee DOGE as a “coup.”
The deep state is still strong and the flurry of lawsuits winding through the courts shows how hard it can be to remove the entrenched interests of those who silently govern American political life. From restraining orders limiting the number of Trump’s executive orders to employment lawsuits filed on behalf of government workers affected by the administration’s layoffs, it remains to be seen how courts will respond to Trump’s efforts.
Indeed, most politicians have not attacked the deep state precisely because ensuring its long-term destruction is a remarkably difficult task. Decades of entrenched power are not easily removed, and there are many unanswered questions regarding how to effectively dismantle the deep state, particularly given the reality that congressional cooperation—say for the purpose of abolishing the Department of Education—is impossible to obtain.
Regardless, the deep state and the consent of the governed cannot coexist. They mix like oil and water. Forcing the general American public to be governed by a cadre of the nation’s most far-left bureaucrats is not sustainable. Whether one loves or hates Donald Trump, his political strength is directly tied to anger fueled by the detachment of DC from the will of “We the People.”
Ultimately, legally well-crafted and successful destruction of the deep state is the cure, not the disease, of our current constitutional dilemma.
Leslie Corbly, author of Silent Suffering: Poems of Pain and Purpose, is an author, poet, and attorney. Her debut poetry collection, Silent Suffering, critiques the predicates of progressive/postmodern beliefs by exploring the suffering of those who fall on the margins of the present era’s culturally dominant moral philosophies.