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The Conversation
The Conversation
Politics
Joseph Patrick Kelly, Professor of Literature and Director of Irish and Irish American Studies, College of Charleston

Undoing the ‘deep state’ means Trump would undo over a century of progress in building a federal government for the people and not just for rich white men

Donald Trump United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt JD Vance MAGA Teddy Roosevelt America Andrew Carnegie Democracy

If elected, Donald Trump has vowed to demolish what he calls the “deep state” – a conspiratorial term for the American federal bureaucracy. A second Trump administration, running mate JD Vance has said, should fire thousands of civil servants and replace them with MAGA loyalists.

Trump has said he would tap the billionare Elon Musk as the hatchet man to lead his proposed government commission on “efficiency” in government.

Compared with the other fireworks of the campaign – like Trump’s promise to criminally prosecute his political rivals and suppress news organizations – threats to gut the United States’ vast federal bureaucracy don’t get much attention. But doing so is a big a threat to democracy.

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