The Deep State, by Jason Chaffetz

Does anyone doubt that there are elements of the federal government that want President Trump to fail?  Every week we hear more revelations about government employees scheming to disrupt, discredit, or destroy Trump's reputation, agenda, and legacy.  As a congressman and chairman of the House Oversight committee, Jason Chaffetz had a front-row seat to the politicization and scheming of various departments and offices in the federal government, and has a unique perspective on efforts by unelected government officials' schemes to thwart Trump.

The Deep State: How an Army of Bureaucrats Protected Barack Obama and is Working to Destroy the Trump Agenda demonstrates that while there may not be an organized cabal calling the shots across the whole federal government, pockets of people throughout the District of Columbia, unelected and unaccountable, wield tremendous power as they protect their own interests and the interests of insider politicians.

As an outsider to Washington, Trump was doomed from the start.  Chaffetz writes that the Deep State doesn't like "exposure, accountability, or responsibility. . . . And they certainly don't like disruptive forces such as Donald Trump."  When Trump said he was going to drain the swamp, they knew exactly what he was talking about, the "vast, self-perpetuating bureaucracy whose aim is singular: to exist again tomorrow and the day after, to replicate itself, to be indestructible and nearly impossible to disrupt."

Give the Deep State's desire for the accumulation and centralization of power, Obama and Hilary exemplify their ideal chief executive.  Trump, on the other hand, not at all.  Much of The Deep State recounts Chaffetz's experiences trying to hold various federal agencies and programs accountable through his role on the House Oversight committee.  Time after time, he saw selective enforcement, cover-ups, lack of consequences or accountability, as wrongdoing was ignored or rewarded and investigations were blocked.  Even as a congressman, he had unelected bureaucrats shutting him out, refusing to appear before his committee, and withholding documents.

Upon the election of Donald Trump, the Deep State went into hysterics.  "The constitutional priority to enforce the law seems to have been replaced with a prerogative to sabotage and undermine the duly elected president of the United States."  The media views talk about the Deep State as paranoid ravings of a lunatic president and his sycophantic followers.  Chaffetz has seen it first hand.  Just because there's not an office with "Deep State" painted on the door doesn't mean that it's not alive and well.  Chaffetz has the stories to demonstrate that it's a real, corrosive force in our federal government.



Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!