Former President Donald Trump plans to overhaul the administrative state by dismissing career bureaucrats from the DOJ and FBI if he is reelected, according to nine individuals involved in the effort who spoke to Reuters. Trump has consistently vowed to eliminate the administrative state, or “deep state,” as he calls it, upon his return to office.
The term “administrative state” refers to the phenomenon of unaccountable and unelected administrative agencies, including the national security apparatus, wielding power to create and enforce their own rules. This administrative state uses its rule-making authority or raw power to undermine the separation of powers among the three branches of government, effectively creating a so-called fourth branch of government not established by the Constitution.
Trump’s reported emphasis on overhauling the DOJ stems from his belief that career bureaucrats within the administrative state unfairly target conservatives, conservative groups, or conservative ideals, with assistance from the national security state or intelligence apparatus. This belief is supported by extensive reporting on various controversies, including the coronavirus pandemic, the Russia investigation, and the “laptop from hell.”
Breitbart News noted further:
The next Trump administration would place new constraints on the DOJ’s authority by decentralizing its power to other law enforcement agencies, the sources told Reuters. The initiative is not a new idea among citizens concerned about the erosion of civil liberty.
Eliminating the FBI’s general counsel, an office that worked against Trump’s presidency and the investigation into the 2016 Russia hoax, would be first, two prominent Trump allies said.
The Biden campaign condemned the idea as Trump exacting revenge on political opponents who allegedly work for a non-partisan agency funded by taxpayers. Most conservatives agree that a president should have the power to fire and hire federal bureaucrats for cause.
Before leaving office in 2021, Trump signed an executive order to reclassify federal government employees into Schedule F. This move aimed to increase accountability and improve job performance within bureaucratic agencies. “You have some people that are protected that shouldn’t be protected,” Trump noted earlier this month.
Biden canceled the order upon taking office in 2021. However, if Trump returns to the White House, he is expected to reinstate it and remove the unelected technocrats who currently influence the federal government. Axios previously noted that this move “would effectively upend the modern civil service, triggering a shock wave across the bureaucracy.”
“The mere mention of Schedule F ensures that the bureaucracy moves in your direction,” Russell Vought, Trump’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget, previously told Time.
“The President never had a policy process that was designed to give him what he actually wanted and campaigned on,” he added. “[We are] sorting through the legal authorities, the mechanics, and providing the momentum for a future Administration.”