A recent survey of senior government employees revealed that 42 percent of them plan to work against the incoming Trump administration.
According to Tyler O’Neil, managing editor of the Daily Signal, “A surprising number of federal government employees admit they are gearing up to act like a deep state, opposing the incoming second administration of Donald Trump.”
He cited a poll by RMG Research Survey, which had been commissioned by the Napolitan Institute.
This should not surprise us. Much of the federal bureaucracy was recruited from liberals who came to Washington to impose their values and views on the American people. Many of the regulatory agencies consider it their jobs to force the American people to do what bureaucrats proscribe.
Trump and the Make America Great Again movement are a mortal threat to these bureaucrats. If President-elect Donald Trump does what he said he would do during the campaign, he is going to threaten the lifetime work of many senior federal bureaucrats. Everything they spent years trying to impose on the American people will be wiped out by the Trump administration.
The new Elon Musk–Vivek Ramaswamy Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is an example of the kind of threat Trump represents for establishment bureaucrats. The DOGE’s goal to cut $2 trillion from government spending will shatter the patterns, habits, procedures, and systems of the bureaucratic Washington establishment.
Imagine you spent 20 or 30 years methodically building a system that would let you achieve your ideological goals — even if the American people opposed you. Then imagine your life’s work is suddenly threatened by outsiders who are businesspeople who thrived outside the typical Washington environment. You would be horrified. For you, the barbarians are at the gate.
This is not a new problem. A senior official in President George W. Bush’s Defense Department once told me that the Pentagon bureaucracy just hunkers down to outlast new administrations. They refer to appointed officials as “the summer help.”
During the first Trump administration, a senior State Department official pointed out to me there are about 27 appointees in the Foreign Service — and 13,000 full-time bureaucrats who oppose them. Like the Paul Newman film “Fort Apache, the Bronx,” he told me “we are in the building, and they are surrounding us.”
This continual problem of bureaucracies manipulating or ignoring elected officials was brilliantly captured in two BBC TV series “Yes, Minister” and “Yes, Prime Minister.” Producer Antony Jay was a senior adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Many of the episodes grew out of actual civil service manipulation against the prime minister. She said it was her favorite TV show. Every Trump appointee should watch the series.
Trump cannot possibly achieve his extraordinary goals if 42 percent of his senior bureaucracy is actively undermining him. Furthermore, bureaucracies that overrule elected officials violate President Abraham Lincoln’s principle, which he articulated at Gettysburg. We want “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
Lincoln understood the importance of the elected executive controlling the instruments of government. In a small government (which exploded in size to win the Civil War), Lincoln replaced 1,200 of the 1,500 policy-making bureaucrats.
Since many of the people Lincoln replaced were Southerners, or pro-South, he could not possibly have won the war had they stayed in their positions. Replacing his opponents in the government with supporters was one of the key decisions that enabled the Union to endure four long, bitter years of war and prevail.
Trump does not have the power (nor would he have the ready replacements) to have an proportionate shift in today’s much larger government.
However, he must have the ability to replace bureaucrats who clearly try to sabotage, slow walk or undermine his policies.
This is a key principle the American people will accept. Once they have selected a chief executive that person should be able to execute. If they cannot, the whole system is beyond the control of the American people.
The Constitution has no provision for acceptable bureaucratic tyranny. It provides for the people to rule through elections to the House, Senate and White House.
Controlling rogue bureaucrats — and passing laws necessary to execute that control — will be a key test for the Trump administration and those who want to Make America Great Again.
This will be one of the first great struggles of the new administration.
Newt Gingrich is the former Speaker of the House. For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also, subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast. This was republished from Gingrich360.com with permission.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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