Deep State Map
Donya Norskog
According to an American political conspiracy theory, the deep state is a clandestine network of members of the federal government (especially within the FBI and CIA), working in conjunction with high-level financial and industrial entities and leaders, to exercise power alongside or within the elected United States government.[1]
The term deep state originated in the 1990s as a reference to an alleged longtime deep state in Turkey, but began to be used to refer to the American government as well, including during the Obama administration.[2] However, the theory reached mainstream recognition under the presidency of Donald Trump, who referenced an alleged "deep state" working against him and his administration's agenda. The use of Trump's Twitter account, combined with other elements of right-wing populist movements during his presidency, gave birth to numerous conspiracy theory groups, such as QAnon.[3][4]
Although the term 'deep state' is thought to have originated in Turkey in the 1990s, belief in the concept of a deep state has been present in the United States since at least the 1950s.[9] A 1955 article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, quotes Americans sharing their belief in the existence of a "dual state": a hidden national security hierarchy and shadow government that monitors and controls elected politicians.[10][11]
Tufts University professor Michael J. Glennon stated that President Barack Obama did not succeed in resisting or changing what he calls the "double government" and points to Obama's failure to close Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a major campaign promise, as evidence of the existence of a deep state.[14]
In a 2017 interview several weeks before Trump was inaugurated, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump "really dumb" for having repeatedly criticized the CIA, saying, "Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you."[15] Various commentators, as well as the ACLU, have pointed to this statement as evidence for the existence of a deep state.[16][17][18][19]
Rebecca Gordon, a teacher and author at the University of San Francisco, wrote in a 2020 piece for Business Insider that Trump has used the term "deep state" to refer to the U.S. government, in particular government Institutions that "frustrate" him, as well as block or fail to implement his government policy such as courts, the Justice Department, and the news media.[20]
During his presidency, Donald Trump and his strategists alleged that the deep state was interfering with his agenda and that the United States Department of Justice was part of the deep state because it did not prosecute Huma Abedin or James Comey.[27][28][29] Some Trump allies and right-wing media outlets alleged that Obama was coordinating a deep state resistance to Trump.[27][30] President Trump's supporters used deep state to refer to allegations that intelligence officers and executive branch officials were influencing policy via leaks or other internal means.[31][32][33]
In 2018, The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed by DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor titled "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration", attributed at the time to a "senior official in the Trump Administration". In the essay, Taylor was critical of President Trump and claimed "that many of the senior officials in [Trump's] own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations".[35] Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy described this as evidence of the deep state at work,[36] and David Bossie wrote an op-ed at Fox News saying this was the deep state "working against the will of the American people".[37]
UCLA School of Law professor Jon D. Michaels argued that compared with developing governments such as Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey, governmental power structures in the United States are "almost entirely transparent".[43][44][45] Michaels argues that the American 'deep state', which includes federal agencies responsible for regulation, welfare, crime prevention, and defense, and the employees who operate them, fundamentally differs from Trump's use of the term in five important respects:[43]
Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, argued that there is no deep state and that "to the extent that there is a bipartisan foreign-policy elite, it is hiding in plain sight".[47]
Anthropologist C. August Elliott likened military involvement in the Trump administration as a "shallow state" in which they were forced to guide the administration "away from a potential shipwreck".[48]
Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg said that deep state is an "elastic label" in that "its story conforms to the intricate grammar of those conspiracy narratives", referencing the transition of conservative rhetoric regarding "big government" from "meddlesome bunglers" to "conniving ideologues".[49]
According to an ABC NEWS/Washington Post poll of Americans in April 2017, about half (48%) thought there was a deep state, defined as "military, intelligence and government officials who try to secretly manipulate government", while about a third (35%) of all participants thought it was a false conspiracy theory, and the remainder (17%) had no opinion. Of those who believe a deep state exists, more than half (58%) said it was a major problem, a net of 28% of those surveyed.[7][51]
A March 2018 poll by Monmouth University found most respondents (63%) were unfamiliar with deep state but a majority believe that a deep state likely exists in the United States when described as "a group of unelected government and military officials who secretly manipulate or direct national policy". Three-fourths (74%) of the respondents say that they believe this type of group probably (47%) or definitely (27%) exists in the federal government.[8][52][53]
An October 2019 The Economist/YouGov poll found that, without giving a definition of deep state to respondents, 70% of Republicans, 38% of independents, and 13% of Democrats agreed that a deep state was "trying to overthrow Trump".[54]
The idea that a \"deep state\" exists inside the federal government has risen to prominence during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump's administration -- but what does it mean? And does it actually exist?
Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon is the most ardent believer in the White House that a deep state exists, telling conservatives earlier this year that the \"deconstruction of the administrative state\" was important to the new White House.
\"Deep state\" is the term used to refer to the idea that there's a cadre of career employees inside a government are working together to secretly manipulate government policy and undermine elected leaders or political appointees. These people can have positions in the military or intelligence fields, as well as other areas of government like bureaucratic agencies.
Many write off the concept of a deep state in the United States as a mere conspiracy theory since no evidence of an organized effort has surfaced. But Trump supporters say that leaks to the media point to the possibility that government bureaucrats are trying to block Trump's agenda.
It's highly unusual for a president of the United States to claim the existence of a deep state within his own government, publicly accusing employees within the executive branch of actively trying to undermine his agenda.
Unlike most issues in today's divided political climate, belief in a \"deep state\" comes evenly from both parties. Forty-five percent of Democrats say there's a deep state and 46 percent of Republicans say the same. Fifty-one percent of independents believe the same.
Also enlisting in the war against the deep state are right-leaning legal activists who use the Freedom of Information Act to target disgruntled career federal workers who use encrypted software to make anonymous political commentary unflattering to Trump.
Though this conflict reached a fever pitch during the Trump presidency, it is not new. Stephen Skowronek, John A. Dearborn, and Desmond King trace the tensions between presidential power and the depth of the American state back through the decades and forward through the various settlements arrived at in previous eras. Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic is about the breakdown of settlements and the abiding vulnerabilities of a Constitution that gave scant attention to administrative power. Rather than simply dump on Trump, the authors provide a richly historical perspective on the conflicts that rocked his presidency, and they explain why, if left untamed, the phantom twins will continue to pull the American government apart.
The state media, meanwhile, which favored positive portrayals of the military over coverage of Morsi, said the fuel shortages occurred because people were buying extra out of fear for the current political climate.
It also appears that the intelligence services, which played a more muted role under Morsi, are back online. The State Security Investigations Service, which is responsible for internal surveillance and helping the state maintain political control, had been widely accused of torture. It was dissolved in March 2011, but weeks after the military ousted Morsi, the Interior Ministry announced that it would restore its operations.
An analysis of the deep state is essential to understanding the current and future trajectory of politics in Iran. The Iranian deep state is composed of an intricate security, intelligence, and economic superstructure whose goal is to preserve the fundamental revolutionary nature, vision, and security of the Islamic Republic.
The American constitutional order is based on many different separations of powers, not just the division of the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches. There are splits between the two halves of the legislature; the federal, state, and local levels of government; the public and private sectors; and more.
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