The concept of a deep state is a conspiracy theory which claims that there exists a coordinated effort by career government employees and others to influence state policy without regard for democratically elected leadership. (Wikipedia)
From the earliest days of the Trump administration, everything that went wrong, legal challenges to his EO’s, the incompetence of his chosen cabinet picks, and especially the leaks that has plagued this White House from day one have been blamed on the “deep state”. As an excuse for his pack mentality supporters it was a natural. A short, snappy title, easy to comprehend, and best of all, a real, honest to God conspiracy. A bunch of disgruntled Obama leftovers, and other unpatriotic subversives, all wickedly collaborating to thwart and subvert the brilliance of The Inglorious Basterd. “See?!? I told you it was a conspiracy!”
It turns out that for once the Tangelo Toddler might have been right, just not in the way that he thought. AXIOS is reporting that there is a new and intriguing theory that is being seriously bandied about in the White House these days. The theory is that there actually is a so called “deep state” at work in the administration, but not to destroy Trump, and everything he stands for, rather to save him from himself. The outline of the operation is as such;
- The generals, the New Yorkers and Republican congressional leaders see themselves as an unofficial committee to protect Trump and the nation from disaster.
- This loose alliance is informal.
- But as one top official told us: "If you see a guy about to stab someone with a knife, you don't need to huddle to decide to grab the knife."
The article does not comport that the three groups act in concert with each other, nor that there is even necessarily an implicit coordination within each group itself, the concept is that all of them realize that Trump is impulsive, and prone to be his own worst enemy, and they strive to provide the information to keep him from doing untold damage to himself;
- The generals — White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis — speak frequently, see the world similarly and privately express a sense of duty to help steer Trump. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, is an ally.
- The New Yorkers, including economic adviser Gary Cohn and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell (with 25 years of foreign-policy experience), have subsumed some of their personal views to blunt Trump's worst ideas. This crowd is highly skilled at communicating with the president (using visuals and grand positioning) to refine or moderate "America first" provocations. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is also very involved, helping demand a process where POTUS has all the information to make domestic and international economic decisions.
- Republican congressional leaders won't win any profiles in courage for standing up to Trump. But almost all could move against the president if special counsel Bob Mueller finds crimes, or the president succumbs to radical instincts.
The revelations came in a series of informal, private chats with several high ranking administration officials. And the actors involved are realists, they gauge their success on bad decisions averted, not positive accomplishments. They know that in come cases Trump will do what he wants, regardless of their input, they concentrate on the things and decisions that they can affect and change. The article points out that the Associated Press caught on to at least a portion of this early, reporting that two of Trump’s top advisors, General Mattis at the DOD, and General Kelly when he was still at Homeland Security forged a pact that at least one of them would always be in the country, to act as a “Trump whisperer” should Der Gropinfuror get a wild hair up his ass about something that could cause critical damage to national security.
To my tired and old mind, there is just inherently off in this thing. The whole object of a President having a cabinet is so that those experts can give their best and sage advice any time a decision comes up that is in their area of expertise. But here we have a situation where the advisors have to play mental games, trying to decide which decisions they can positively influence, and let the other bad shit go as a lost cause. But, especially in our current situation in regards to North Korea, it is also a possible source of solace. That being the generals. It indicates that they have already come to the conclusion that an eventual showdown with Trump may be necessary. Medal of Honor recipient Colonel Jack Jacobs put it perfectly on MSNBC yesterday. To paraphrase; “When you’re low in the ranks, making a judgement on an “illegal order” is easy. But when you climb to the highest ranks, you realize that your job is not only to decline an illegal order, it’s also not to do anything stupid”. Not only does this arrangement, if true, make it more likely that the generals would stand up to Trump on an illegal order, but also on an order that while technically being legal, would go against the Army code of conduct, or just be flat out stupid in a national security sense. Hey, hope where you can find it these days.