A Deep Dive Into the Deep State
What is it? How did it form? Where is it leading?
“All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of an autocratic state…. Nowadays, autocracies are not run by one bad guy but by sophisticated networks, relying on kleptocratic financial structures, a complex of security services — -military, paramilitary, police — -and technological experts who provide surveillance, propaganda, and disinformation. The members of these networks are connected not only to one another within a given autocracy but also to networks in other autocratic countries and democracies too.”
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A s the Trump-Musk deluge has continued unabated, it increasingly appears that no part of the political system, from the various agencies to Congress (not even Democratic politicians), plan on taking any serious action to effectively stop an illegal and unconstitutional coup. Almost everyone in power is acting helpless, as if they have no individual agency and collective ability to enforce the law and defend the constitution, as is required of them according to the oath of their offices. Even the deep state seems uninterested in maintaining the American Empire, the very underlying structure of geopolitical superpower with its alliances that was created to enforce Pax Americana and prevent another world war. It appears that the dismantling and destruction is intentionally or passively being allowed to happen, for whatever reason(s). For certain, defending, strengthening, and promoting democracy hasn’t been a major concern of the ruling elite, and that’s been true for a long time (Devon Price, They Don’t Really Want You to Vote; & The American Dream of Democracy).
It appears that the dismantling and destruction is intentionally or passively being allowed to happen, for whatever reason(s). For certain, defending, strengthening, and promoting democracy hasn’t been a major concern of the ruling elite, and that’s been true for a long time.
That last part leads us to the realization that something far greater has been going on (Who Are the Distractors and Who Is the Distraction?). In that context, let’s explore what is the American deep state; murkily overlapping with concepts like shadow government, inverted totalitarianism, security state, military-industrial complex, soft fascism, corporatism, corporatocracy, oligarchy, the Establishment, and banana republic (all variously defined, depending on the source and context). Unsurprisingly, there is little mainstream discussion of a ‘deep state’, by reputable media and political elites. This term has become associated with right-wing conspiracy theorists and so, beyond crazy right-wing media, claims about it are typically dismissed out of hand. That is because the likes of Donald Trump and Steve Bannon have co-opted such rhetoric. In their use, it simply refers to all forms of power — including constitutional republicanism, legal system, liberal proceduralism, civil rights, and democratic empowerment of the citizenry — that interferes with their own aspirations for totalizing power; as if prevention of authoritarianism and despotism means people are conspiring against them.
In a sense, yes, there has been a conspiracy against them. The political system, imperfect as it is, was originally designed and built by the American founders and signers who conspired with the intention that the system would act jointly to block the type of thing that is happening now with this fascist coup. A large part of the debate during the American Revolution and the Constitutional Convention, specifically on the side of the Anti-Federalists (Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, etc), was about the explicit dangers of an imperial presidency, a Supreme Court that acts by fiat, corporate and foreign influence, and much else along these lines; all the key components of the present GOP-MAGA-DOGE-NRx agenda. The founders worried about how aspiring authoritarians could conspire to destroy democratic republicanism and so they put into place protections against it, as part of a constitutional order that was impressively detailed for its era.
The deep state, though, wasn’t part of the original design; if it’s a predictable byproduct. It’s a basic and mundane concept. A deep state naturally results from the accretion and calcification of undemocratic systems over time, at least when high inequality is allowed to run rampant (another concern of the Anti-Federalists). By definition, it’s simply the non-elected parts of power that, in extending across administrations and elections, become entrenched inside and outside official structures. It would include the overall bureaucracy, such as formal agencies like the CIA, Homeland Security, FBI, DOJ, Pentagon, etc. That involves spy networks, as well as different kinds of agents, informants, and operatives. Much of this, particularly intelligence agencies, operates through front organizations and black budgets. One might note the U.S. government is constantly ‘losing’ vast sums of money (Terrence Leveck, ; Julia Gledhill, ; & Mark F. Cancian, ).
A deep state naturally results from the accretion and calcification of undemocratic systems over time, at least when high inequality is allowed to run rampant (another concern of the Anti-Federalists). By definition, it’s simply the non-elected parts of power that, in extending across administrations and elections, become entrenched inside and outside official structures.
But the deep state isn’t limited to standard covert power within intelligence agencies and such. Besides regulatory capture of other kinds of agencies (FDA, USDA, etc), it also would include public and private, political and quasi-political individuals, families, and social circles such as wealthy donors, plutocratic oligarchs, highly positioned figures, crony networks, and political dynasties. This includes many well known and less well known people: Dulles brothers, Paul Weyrich, Coors family, Devos family, Koch brothers, Bush family, Kennedy family, Clintons, Podesta brothers, Paul Manafort, Karl Rove, Rupert Murdoch, etc; just to give a small sample. More than a few of these people and their living descendants had and/or still have immense influence in shaping political actions and public policy, from controlling party machines to operating behind the scenes in various capacities.
Consider Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, when she was the leading figure of the dominant Clinton Democrats that controlled the DNC. There was a leaked video of her giving a private speech to bankers. She told them to ignore what she said in public, that who she really served was people like them. This wasn’t only her making empty promises to win monied support and backing; as the sincerity of her words were shown with her activities as Secretary of State (e.g., having promoted a corporate-friendly leader in Haiti and suppressed wages there to ensure cheap labor for U.S. corporations). Likewise, multiple analyses prove that Congress only acts according to elite opinion, which primarily originates in corporate capitalism and plutocratic oligarchy (Thomas E. Mann & Norman Ornstein, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks; Benjamin Page & Martin Gilens, Democracy In America? & Billionaires and Stealth Politics; etc). That is largely what deep state means in practice. For the most part, it’s simply old fashioned corruption, backroom cronyism, elite group interest, and class war that is intertwined, well organized, and persists over the long term. It’s based on the incentives of the system, the lines of influence that entangle.
The deep state extended
As another example, Jeff Bezos was born into wealth and power (). His grandfather, Lawrence Preston Gise, was a leading bureaucrat in the Pentagon. He worked in the nuclear program and the early development of the internet. A young Jeff spent summers on his ranch. When Bezos started Amazon, he was able to not make a profit and keep the business out of bankruptcy through constant influx of investment money from wealthy family, friends, and associates; in fact, able to go without a profit for more than two decades. Though a private businessman, Bezos is tied into government contracts and is a member of a Pentagon advisory board; and one suspects his grandfather’s connections likely helped him hire the technical expertise to build an early tech company. Such political legacy of inherited crony connections and corporate-government merger is what was feared by many of the American founders, and it’s precisely what is meant by a power structure existing outside all democratic transparency, accountability, and responsiveness. It’s the deep state.
Such political legacy of inherited crony connections and corporate-government merger is what was feared by many of the American founders, and it’s precisely what is meant by a power structure existing outside all democratic transparency, accountability, and responsiveness.
In addition, the deep state would extend into quasi-political and party-aligned organizations like politician’s pet non-profits, lobbyist organizations, legal firms, think tanks, media operations, etc. Think of firms like Black, Manafort, Stone (1980) that has been doing business since the Reagan administration, including early clients like Donald Trump (). Interestingly, some years back, that Republican firm was working with the Podesta Group, a Democratic firm, in meddling in Ukraine and working with people associated with Vladimir Putin: “Paul Manafort, a man with more Russian clients than American ones, lived rent-free in Trump Tower while shoveling Kremlin-friendly policy into the campaign’s foreign policy” (Paddy Murphy, President Krasnov: The Long Con of Donald J. Trump). All of this was mixed up with lots of extra-political activities of American elites in the run-up to the Ukraine War. Because of that operation, Paul Manafort, a leading Republican insider, got prosecuted for working as a foreign agent. But having been Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, Manafort was pardoned by Trump as president. That is how cronyism operates within the deep state. They protect their own. And the corporate media, if superficially reporting on such incidents, typically doesn’t outline how enmeshed and extensive is this larger deep state; or, for that matter, rarely frames it as a deep state at all (). It’s an open secret.
Look at the other side of that situation, the Democratic Party (; & ). During that period of Ukranian meddling, Hunter Biden was on the boards of a Ukranian firm and a Ukranian gas company, which seems strange for the son of a U.S. politician; and, if for unrelated reasons, he was prosecuted and then pardoned by his father, President Joe Biden. About the Podesta Group, it was founded (1988) during the same period as Manafort’s firm by the brothers Tony and John Podesta, with John later having become the right hand man of the Clintons. When Donna Brazile leaked the questions to a presidential debate, she handed them over to John Podesta who then gave them to Hillary Clinton. That demonstrates how many of the most powerful political insiders and operatives are names few Americans are familiar with, but it also reveals the links there are to corporate media, as part of what is variously called the politico-media complex, political-media-industrial complex, media-industrial complex, military-industrial-media complex, media-technology-military-industrial complex, etc; and think of this in terms of gatekeeping, Overton window control, and manufacturing consent, as written by Noam Chomsky and others.
These kinds of organizations don’t act separately and in isolation, but often have overlapping members and funding sources, plus overlapping with boards of corporations, non-profits, et cetera; as all these people are part of the same social circles.
Such private firms as that run by Manafort and the Podestas often act as hidden political operations that are able to function outside of official channels. These kinds of organizations don’t act separately and in isolation, but often have overlapping members and funding sources, plus overlapping with boards of corporations, non-profits, et cetera; as all these people are part of shared and interrelated social circles. One sees the same family names over and over again. As Trump is linked to Manafort, also consider his relation to Jeffrey Epstein who claimed he was Trump’s closest friend for a decade, with Epstein also tied into numerous other public and private elites all over the world; and, heck, Trump used to be family friends with the Clintons (by the way, Bill Clinton also flew on Epstein’s jet, nicknamed the “Lolita Express”). This web of connections involves dark money and shadow networks, as investigative journalists and academic scholars have written about. In addition, it involves revolving door politics, regulatory capture, etc. There are also such things like the pay-to-play of political foundations with what effectively is legal bribery (e.g., Clinton Foundation). All of this info is in the public record, and it’s well understood how such things operate. It’s an established conspiracy fact.
One of the best examples is what Anne Nelson detailed as a shadow network, the force behind the politicized religious right and culture wars; but there is also Jane Mayer’s related scholarship in her book Dark Money which goes into the funding network behind it all. The right-wing shadow network was originally organized by Paul Weyrich, a mastermind who mostly operated in the background and never held political office; while being one of the most powerful and influential individuals who is entirely unknown by most Americans. Much of the early funding that Weyrich relied on came from Joseph Coors, and the Coors family has remained a central funding source for this shadow network. It has included many private organizations like the Heritage Foundation, Moral Majority, Family Research Council, Council for National Policy (CNP), American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and many others; along with support and promotion of media like Focus on the Family, The 700 Club, and right-wing talk radio; but also it has funded websites, blogs, social media accounts, social influencers, and media personalities. This shadow network has operated closely with the Republican Party, as many of the same people are involved in both.
Most key to the right-wing shadow network has been the Heritage Foundation, having been founded by Paul Weyrich, Joseph Coors, and Edwin Feulner. It’s come to attention because it published the text that articulates Project 2025 with direct ties to major players like J.D. Vance who is Trump’s Vice President, with Vance being equally tied into other powerful actors like the techno-oligarch Peter Thiel who is in turn linked to Elon Musk; the standard web of crony relationships. Project 2025 includes many agendas, but in particular politicized religion, activist judges, educational control, and the imperial presidency (Federalist’s “Vigorous Executive” and Project 2025’s Imperial Presidency). Much of that was earlier outlined in the 1971 Powell Memo. So, they’ve been covertly pushing this agenda for more than a half century and with high levels of coordination. They went mainstream with Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, having coincided with the opening of the Moral Majority organization. As a side note, Paul Weyrich gave a public speech at the Moral Majority’s opening, during which he effectively admitted they weren’t a majority and wouldn’t win elections without voter suppression (‘goo goo syndrome’). Beyond that early rise to power, the right-wing shadow network had their first major success with the stolen 2000 election that was decided by fiat of a politicized Supreme Court; and almost zero pushback by the DNC elite. They then established the imperial presidency that set the stage for what’s going on now.
As for the deep state in terms of conspiracies, the above demonstrates such hidden activities that are well organized, planned, coordinated, and enacted through key figures (i.e., conspirators) and entrenched power structures over generations. None of that is exactly new or secret knowledge. On a similar note, there are decades of leaked and released documents detailing many historical examples of how undemocratic power and a secretive government operates within the American Empire, especially as early on established by the Dulles brothers and the CIA; about which President Eisenhower warned in speaking of the military-industrial complex. The United States government has a long history of covert operations: overthrowing governments, assassinations, creating banana republics, propping up puppet dictators, funding and arming paramilitary groups, false flag operations, etc. Pretty much by definition, a large swath of the U.S. government operates covertly according to organized conspiracies. This occurs entirely outside of official governance, often using private actors and organizations to achieve its ends.
The deep history of the deep state
Much of this is common sense or should be, but people too often get caught up in the loaded or stigmatized language: ‘deep state’, ‘conspiracy theory’, etc. Let’s simply look at the facts. The FBI used COINTELPRO to systematically destroy the organized Left (e.g., the Black Panther’s Rainbow Coalition), tried to blackmail MLK into suicide, and was involved in the assassination of Fred Hampton. Homeland Security still uses COINTELPRO tactics like entrapment that are technically illegal. The CIA went further in the past with domestic propaganda and espionage operations that have been numerous. Some proven and infamous examples are Project Mockingbird and Project Chaos. Or think of American Studies in universities that was established as propagandistic means of promoting American interests. But the U.S. government still does propaganda by skirting the law, such as enforcing control over movie scripts with bribery that gives compliant filmmakers and studios access to government property and personnel. And the U.S. government places propaganda in non-American media that, nonetheless reaches the American public.
There is no absolute distinction separating public and private influence, which is ultimately all that is meant when speaking of a deep state and why it’s so hard to discern and talk about. Being hazy and amorphous, obfuscation of its existence and activities is the whole point.
There is no absolute distinction separating public and private influence, which is ultimately all that is meant when speaking of a deep state and why it’s so hard to discern and talk about. Being hazy and amorphous, obfuscation of its existence and activities is the whole point. During the Cold War (and surely continuing to this day), the CIA was funding organizations in the United States and around the world, not only such things as political organizations but also artists, musicians, public intellectuals, literary magazines, writing workshops, etc (e.g., Congress for Cultural Freedom). Professors were also on their payroll, sometimes as spymasters to spy on students and recruit agents but also to do textual analysis. The CIA sought to influence scholarship and high culture. That was one of the main activities, far beyond merely propaganda films, of the U.S. government in the struggle with the Soviet Union for geopolitical power and influence. But to a casual outside viewer, all of this appears like organic culture, just the way a society has naturally formed and organized.
Even many of our intellectual and ideological debates have been shaped in ways typically unseen, far beyond conventional Cold War anti-communist propaganda and the media operations of the right-wing shadow network. A major reason that postmodernism came to be so prominent is because the CIA actively promoted it, as an ideological competitor to Marxism, and so with the hope that it would suck the oxygen out of the room. It seems to have been successful. Ironically, right-wing media hacks and political demagogues now repeatedly push the nonsensical rhetoric of postmodern Marxism, but it would be a thousand times more meaningful to associate postmodernism with the CIA than with leftists. Many postmodern thinkers were anything but leftist, sometimes with overt right-wing leanings. The right-wing conspiracy theories are often insane, ignorant, and bigoted, but they only have plausibility because they are drawing upon nuggets of established facts from proven conspiracies, with some of it revealed by government documents. You have to give government agencies credit for often keeping careful records.
As shown in our survey and analysis, the deep state can extend quite far into the private sector, blurring the line between official and unofficial power. But also keep in mind that many of the people who were on the payroll of the CIA didn’t know the money originated from the CIA, much less understood the agenda behind the money. Like the right-wing shadow network, the CIA also has had a network of organizations through which money is funneled so as to obscure the orchestrated influence (i.e., conspiracy). In many ways, the crossover into the private sector, of course, includes agents and informants working in private groups. And many such people understood perfectly well who they’ve been working with. Think of Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the neo-fascist and white supremacist Proud Boys, who was an FBI informant and undercover agent; and that was the case during the time the Proud Boys, at the behest of Tarrio, played a central role in the January 6 insurrection.
Like the right-wing shadow network, the CIA also has had a network of organizations through which money is funneled so as to obscure the orchestrated influence (i.e., conspiracy).
By the way, it’s still a question of what happened on that day. The FBI knew of the plans to violently target politicians, as there was open discussion about it online. Yet the Capitol police were given no riot gear, had no larger reinforcements ready and nearby, and there apparently were no plans on how to prevent riots, violence, etc. In being unprepared and outnumbered, the Capitol police simply gave way to the large mob, but they were able to hold them off long enough. If the insurrectionists had broken in just minutes earlier, they could’ve captured major political figures to be harmed, killed, or held hostage. That would’ve been the greatest crisis in our country since maybe the Civil War. Even without further violence, it was the first time the Capitol building was invaded since the British marched into Washington, D.C. in 1814. The point is that it wasn’t only Trump’s incitement and inaction that made violent insurrection possible. The government knowing things in advance and letting them happen anyway is what motivated writing this piece about the reality and role of the deep state. This happens again and again, and so gets one thinking.
This brings us back to the present moment and how we got here. Let’s consider two of the main family dynasties, the Bushes and Trumps. It was already mentioned that the imperial presidency was first established under George W. Bush’s administration and he was elected not by voters but by fiat of the politicized Supreme Court, with a full recount never having been done in Florida during the 2000 election nor demanded to be done by the DNC elite who, instead, falsely scapegoated the Green Party candidate Ralph Nader — one of the many examples of the Democratic Party punching left while giving covering fire for GOP machinations. Plus, keep in mind that Dubya inherited his father’s political cronies who then worked in his administration, along with his father still having had ties to the CIA from when he was the Director. To demonstrate their devious scheming, this group of political insiders planned the Iraq War before the second Bush president was even elected, only later using as a pretext the 9/11 terrorist attack and false claims of weapons of mass destruction, while letting off the hook the actual Saudi Arabian actors who were behind it.
The aspiration for right-wing authoritarianism has deep roots in the Bush family. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a Wall Street banker and Senator. Allegedly, he was involved in what has been claimed as a 1934 Business Plot, a failed fascist coup to topple, replace, or usurp the United States government. That supposed attempt or scheme to install a dictator (debate continues over the exact nature of the plot and how far it advanced) was apparently foiled because General Smedley Butler, a national hero, refused to participate and revealed it to the public. If we had someone of equal moral character today, the present fascist coup might’ve been stopped before it even started. By the way, the Business Plot was investigated by Congress at the time and they confirmed some of General Butler’s claims. But the investigation was shut down early because of pressure from powerful interests and the records of it mysteriously disappeared. The fact that the evidence was destroyed or taken and the truth hidden indicates there was compelling validity to General Butler’s accusation.
To reinforce the plausibility that Prescott Bush was implicated, he also had multiple direct financial ties with Fritz Thyssen who was an early supporter of Adolf Hitler and the lead financier of the Nazi Party; with his own father as a Senator who protected him. Also, Prescott may have had a role in Operation Paperclip that brought Nazis into the U.S. government (John Buchanan & Stacey Michael, ). To be fair, Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr., the father of the famous Kennedy brothers (JFK and RFK), was also associated with the Nazis (and, interestingly, now his grandson Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has traded on the Kennedy name to get a position in the second Trump administration). After all, many tycoons and a number of Congressmen of that era were American First advocates, fascists, white supremacists, ethnonationalists, and eugenicists; with some having been overt Nazi sympathizers. Much of Nazi ideology, rhetoric, and practices originated in the United States, as Nazi leadership acknowledged; with many American writers, intellectuals, activists, and leaders having been praised by Nazi officials and, in some cases, having received Nazi medals.
Anyway, the point is that, in the Bush family and among their cronies, authoritarian inclinations and aspirations have run a continuous line for about a century and they were far from alone. We might call the present Trump-Musk fiasco the second Business Plot. They never stop scheming. If not related to the Bush family, a decade after the first Business Plot, there was “an ultra-right pro-Nazi movement that plotted to overthrow the U.S. government by force in the lead up to World War II. These groups worked with an agent from Hitler’s government named George Viereck. He also colluded with over 20 sitting members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to launder and spread Nazi propaganda, often at taxpayers’ expense. Those congressmen were associated with the America First Committee, a group with many antisemitic leaders. The group opposed America entering World War II. In 1944, the plots led to the largest sedition trial in U.S. history” (Terry Gross, ). And the influence extended with the long-lived Rep. Hamilton Fish III (Jon Schwarz, ). That is reporting from reputable MSM figures, not the paranoid ravings and false conspiracy theory of the far right.
Fascists are persistent, if nothing else. It looks like that persistence is finally paying off with their support of Donald Trump. The Trump family, if not with as extensive or direct ties into American national politics, has long been enmeshed in NYC politics and organized crime. Fred Trump, Donald’s father, got wealthy through business schemes that cheated the federal government out of money, having taken advantage of loopholes that were later closed and methods that were later made illegal. He then used his mob connections to further increase his wealth (Steve Villano, ). “He had access to the city bureaucrats and the most lucrative contracts. By the time DJT took over the family business, Fred’s tactics had been outlawed. Trump used them anyway because he didn’t know any other way to make money” (Teri Kanefield, ). Fred got in trouble for bribery, but it didn’t stop his corrupt activities.
Donald Trump then expanded his father’s real estate empire by developing ties to foreign organized crime and oligarchies in countries like Russia and Ukraine, in order to launder money, along with much other criminal activity (Philip Bump, ; Mark Timberlake, The Evolution of ‘Krasnov’: Russian Mafia Associate, KGB Asset, US President, Traitor; & ). Some even allege Trump was unknowingly recruited by the Soviets in 1987 and has been manipulated ever since (Paddy Murphy, President Krasnov: The Long Con of Donald J. Trump). As a media personality as well, he followed in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan who wasn’t only a Hollywood movie star but also a corporate spokesman. Trump’s fame and notoriety made him useful as the face of these old right-wing machinations. Predictably, his family’s corruption followed him into the presidency. During his first term, he nepotistically put his own family members into his administration and, in that capacity, they illegally accepted direct payments from foreign governments; and, of course, were never prosecuted. Now, in his second term, Trump is working closely with acting President Elon Musk in openly flouting federal law and defying the entire constitutional order. When not controlled and terminated, corruption breeds and spreads like vermin; and, like an invasive species, it destroys the ecosystem of democracy. That is the foundation upon which the deep state is built.
When not controlled and terminated, corruption breeds and spreads like vermin; and, like an invasive species, it destroys the ecosystem of democracy. That is the foundation upon which the deep state is built.
We’ve only gotten to this point because there is a two-tiered legal system. Like his father, Donald Trump has evaded legal consequences his entire life. That is how he got the nickname ‘Teflon Don’. Some speculate that, because of ties to organized crime, he may have some kind of immunity agreement in working as an informant for the FBI or CIA. Or else, his mob associates have put pressure on the legal system to keep him out of trouble. The New York City government is known for corruption, with the Mafia being powerful there. By whatever means he has achieved it, Trump has successfully and repeatedly gotten charges dropped, investigations stopped, cases ended, and prosecutions avoided. In one instance, the victim in a sex abuse case withdrew her allegation after she was threatened. And a while back, the IRS admitted to knowing about possible illegal activity by Trump, but they simply refused to investigate. Worse still, if the law and Constitution had been fairly applied, Trump wouldn’t have been eligible for running for a second presidential term, as he “engaged in insurrection” (14th Amendment, Section 3). Then following that, data analysis from Greg Palast and SMART Elections indicates this past presidential election may have been stolen, by way of mass ballot purges across numerous states. It’s corruption all the way down.
Late stage deep state
Back in 2019, Chris Hedges warned of what could come next: “Social unrest is inevitable. Any population can be pushed only so far. The deep state, incapable of reform and determined to retain its grip on power, will morph under the threat of popular unrest into a corporatized fascism. It has at its disposal the legal and physical tools to instantly turn the United States into a police state. This is the real danger behind the deep state’s drive to impeach Trump. It is a stark message to obey or be silenced. Trump, in the end, is not the problem. We are. And if the deep state fails to rid itself of Trump it will, however reluctantly, use him to carry out its dirty work. Trump, if he manages to survive in power, will get his military parades. We will get, with or without Trump, tyranny” (. It seems that the deep state has made the decision to go with the second option, to use Trump “to carry out its dirty work.” In one sense, those like Trump and Musk have become part of the deep state and maybe always were. But the deep state preceded them, as it exists far beyond them and operates in ways even they don’t understand. Ultimately, they’re likely being used as puppets and tools of even more commanding actors and Machiavellian masterminds.
If its full form is still not visible in the daylight, the machinations of shadowy power are surfacing into public view and that’s concerning. They no longer feel compelled to hide their actions. It’s late stage deep state. Let’s hope more Americans begin to understand the danger we face, deep state and otherwise. The fact that plutocrats like Trump and Musk have taken over (or rather been allowed to take over) the largest and wealthiest, most powerful, and advanced empire in history demonstrates the strange public-private mixture of which a deep state consists. But it’s also telling that both of these figures made their way into politics through corporate media, Trump as a media personality and Musk by way of buying a social media platform. They both had a talent and desire to manipulate media to political ends, and yet both spent most of their careers entirely outside of formal politics. That is the thing about a plutocracy and kleptocracy, in that it’s inherently always a part of the deep state. Under the extreme inequality and inequities of a stratospheric dominance hierarchy, plutocrats have far more influence over the government than does the voting citizenry.
For some, talk of a deep state may seem like arcane speculation about nefarious actors and cabals. But that is a misunderstanding. It’s simply human nature writ large. The thing is that it’s not human nature under normal, healthy conditions.
That an immigrant like Musk can not only buy a major media platform to push spin and disinfo but also buy his way into the power structure of an empire demonstrates the nature of this kind of a deep state. Many of the most powerful actors within the American system of elite social control come from other countries. Besides some of the tech oligarchs being South Africans, there are those like Rupert Murdoch who is Australian, along with many coming from Israel; in many cases, involving multiple citizenships. A deep state extends not only into the private sphere (or vice versa) but across national boundaries, by way of transnational cronyism. That probably always was true to some extent. Think of the old European monarchies and aristocracies that were all intermarried, such that a monarch from one country might inherit the rule of another country, as if power was more real and fundamental than the land itself. These old varieties of elites perceived themselves as separate from the people over which they ruled. Colonial empires, as their reach stretched, also were messy political projects. That was seen with how many for-profit corporate colonies became semi-autonomous governments, as was the case with the British East India Company that grew so large and power-hungry that it started to become the tail that wagged the dog.
For some, talk of a deep state may seem like arcane speculation about nefarious actors and cabals. But that is a misunderstanding. It’s simply human nature writ large. The thing is that it’s not human nature under normal, healthy conditions. And so it’s helpful to have some social science background. But we won’t get into the details here. Only understand that high inequality causes people to become disconnected, ungrounded, isolated, alienated, and deranged (Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett, The Inner Level; & Keith Payne, The Broken Ladder); with the entire social order destabilized (Walter Scheidel, The Great Leveler; & Peter Turchin, End Times). Under severe chronic stress, the social impulse becomes warped; and this is exacerbated by the stunted cognitive empathy of elites. That social dominators (SDOs) and dark personalities (Machiavellians, narcissists, psychopaths, sadists) are drawn into the deep state is caused by how power is addictive. Yet if there weren’t those elites in an extreme state of mental illness, they wouldn’t be vulnerable to such an addictive mentality in the first place. The addiction to power is driven by a need for control. But the more that control is enforced the more everything will go out of control. That is what we’re experiencing and with dire consequences.
This has been a long time coming. The deep state has been brought out into the open for everyone to see. It’s not merely about super-rich white men with too much time on their hands, as aspiring neo-aristocrats and neo-monarchs, seizing the reigns of governance and causing chaos across the world. Those like Trump and Musk are more results than causes; that is to say they are swamp creatures, not the swamp itself. What we are now witnessing is the simultaneous apogee, culmination, and decline of a sick society pushed to the final breaking point. The deep state will likely destroy itself or collapse in on itself, one way or another, if that is any comfort; albeit the specific timeframe and outcome can’t be predicted. There seems to be no way of avoiding the catastrophe looming ahead. Maybe it simply must play itself out. All that remains for us on the Left is to bide our time (The Left Is Dead! Long Live the Left!). Keep alert. Be on the defense. Wait for the fever to break. And look for opportunities for collective action. Plenty of opportunities should be arising as public mood sours and the weather warms. The American Left always comes into its own during hard times, particularly when there is a clear threat to organize against. We now know what we’re fighting.
4/28/2025 — An update from recent investigative journalism:
This demonstrates what the deep state has become, in this age of tech broligarchy, and how it operates behind the scenes. It’s about the leaked Signal chats among the leading plutocrats. It undeniably shows them literally conspiring and scheming about how to manipulate Americans and destroy democracy.
Below is an article about it and some key sections from it:
by Ben Smith
“It’s the same thing happening on both sides, and I’ve been amazed at how much this is coordinating our reality,” said the writer Thomas Chatterton Williams, who was for a time a member of a group chat with Andreessen. “If you weren’t in the business at all, you’d think everyone was arriving at conclusions independently — and [they’re] not. It’s a small group of people who talk to each other and overlap between politics and journalism and a few industries.”
But there is no equivalent to the intellectual counterculture that grew up over the last five years on the tech right, and no figure remotely like Andreessen, the towering, enthusiastic 53-year old who co-founded a16z and, before that, invented the modern web browser. […]
I do hope someone in those groups took some screenshots and a fuller story can be told. I was able to reconstruct fragments from participants who spoke to me because they considered the group chats an important open secret. And it’s hard to deny their power. The political journalist Mark Halperin, who now runs 2WAY and has a show on Megyn Kelly’s network, said it was remarkable that “the left seems largely unaware that some of the smartest and most sophisticated Trump supporters in the nation from coast to coast are part of an overlapping set of text chains that allow their members to share links, intel, tactics, strategy, and ad hoc assignments. Also: clever and invigorating jokes. And they do this (not kidding) like 20 hours a day, including on weekends.” He called their influence “substantial.”
Many of the group chatters celebrate their success in driving the ascendant politics of the Trump era, which they hope will bring back patriotic industry and traditional cultural norms. Some who have left or lurk consider it a sinister phenomenon in which Andreessen exerted unspoken gravitational pull, as one participant put it: “You’d see that the writers were bending toward the billionaires, and even the ones who prided themselves on being iconoclastic were bending to the tastes and the centers of gravity of power.”
