My latest Telegraph column:

Donald Trump has big plans to shake up what he calls “the deep state”. Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter may just have given him a gift that will help him do that.

Trump has spent years clashing with the federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies, as well as the foreign policy establishment. In Trump’s telling, American politics is a cynical racket, and the permanent denizens of “the swamp” — the civil service in DC and the bureaucracies they populate — serve as a kind of Praetorian Guard to protect that racket rather than keep it honest. There’s a two-tiered system of justice, where the favoured insiders get kid-glove treatment, while disruptive outsiders such as Trump don’t just get the book thrown at them — they also face draining “lawfare”. That includes secret spying, seemingly never-ending investigations, and anonymously-sourced leaks. This prevents anyone from deviating too far from the civil service’s consensus centre-Left views on foreign affairs or the law, even if the voters elect them to do precisely that.

It’s an exaggerated portrait, and one that’s unfair to a lot of diligent public servants doing necessary work to keep Americans safe. But there is more than enough truth to it to cry out for reform.