Since at least 2017, a series of high-quality polls show that a majority of Americans believe that a so-called deep state of unelected elites wields dominant power in the U.S. The term “deep state” is covered by the media as a phrase invented by Donald Trump, who uses it frequently to denounce unelected liberals and “Marxists” in government. But the idea of a deep state has a long history on the left as well as the right — with two very different meanings. The outcome of this year’s presidential election may depend on whether the public comes to see the real deep state as the one Trump is attacking, or the one that the left has long challenged.
Trump’s deep state includes the civil servants in the federal regulatory and social welfare bureaucracy as well as in the national security apparatus of the CIA, FBI and Pentagon. He denounces them as the real threat to democracy, aligning with Project 2025’s proposal to purge more than 50,000 civil servants and replace them with his political appointees. He has promised to prosecute the leaders of this deep state elite and their coastal allies in the Democratic Party, the media and universities who work in concert to promote open borders and the ideology of DEI (diversity, equity and equality) that is stealing the jobs of hard-working “true” Americans who are white Christian patriots.
