Donald Trump's war against ‘Deep State’, its link with Biden and impact on 2024 US election | Explained

Donald Trump, who kicked off his third presidential campaign last year in March, described the 2024 contest to unseat US President Joe Biden as “the final battle”. Addressing a rally in Waco, Texas, he asserted, in this race “either the deep state destroys America or we destroy the deep state.”

Foreign policy experts and political scientists use the term “deep state” to refer to people and organisations who exercise power in civil society and over political leaders. They mostly applied it to developing nations like Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey, where generals and spies made all the crucial decisions and changed elected officials when they felt it appropriate.

The Deep State and its origin

The deep state, according to an American political conspiracy theory, is a covert network of federal employees, particularly those who work for the FBI and CIA, that collaborates with prominent figures from the financial and business sectors to wield power alongside or inside the democratically elected US government.

The term “deep state” was first used in the 1990s to refer to what was thought to be a long-standing deep state in Turkey. However, the phrase was later used to describe the US government, particularly under the Obama administration. However, the thesis gained widespread acceptance under Trump's presidency, as he alleged that the purported “deep state” was working against him and the policies of his government.

During Obama's presidency, the focus was on the unsettling accuracy of “targeted killings” carried out by drones, followed by the controversy surrounding Snowden, the former contractor for the National Security Agency whose 2013 disclosures revealed the startling extent of government eavesdropping. “There's definitely a deep state. Trust me, I have been there,” he told the Nation in 2014.

Approximately half of Americans, according to opinion polls conducted in 2017 and 2018, believe the United States has a deep state.

Trump vows to ‘dismantle the deep state’

Trump's obsession with deep state is not something new. He has been promoting this theory since special counsel Robert Mueller began the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Trump used the term to criticise leakers and whistleblowers from the US intelligence establishment during his tenure as the president. A large number of the January 6 Capitol rioters drew inspiration from conspiracy theories disseminated by QAnon, which asserted that a deep state was conspiring to destabilise Trump and deceive the electorate. Moreover, Trump has pledged to “dismantle the deep state” if he is elected in November by removing the civil service safeguards that shield thousands of government employees.

Following recent assassination attempt on Trump, social media flooded with several conspiracy theories with few calling the attack “staged”.

Meanwhile, one of the US-based account suggested with a history of disseminating misinformation wrote: “This is price you pay when you take down the elite satanic paedophiles,” referring to the conspiracy theory put forth by QAnon, which contends that Trump is fighting a secret battle against the deep state.

Without providing any proof to back up the claim, they stated that the “order” for the assassination "likely came from the CIA", and accused Mike Pence, Hillary Clinton, and Obama of being complicit. The viral post has so far garnered over 6.9 million views.

“This is either one of the worst failures in Secret Service history or a deep state plot. There’s no way this should have ever happened,” tweeted Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager.

Biden and the Deep State

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova recently claimed that the media and the US' “deep state” have long concealed Biden's actual mental status from the public.

Zakharova stated that those who wished to show Biden as capable had instead made things worse. She was reacting after Biden addressed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, as “President Putin”.

Russian state media commentators, who have been warning that Democrats would kill Trump, have suggested that Russia's Federal Security Service should begin "protecting our Donald."

Russian propagandists are now accusing both the Democrats and the Ukrainians of attempting to kill Trump. “The Democratic party is behind this attempted assassination,” claimed former New York Times correspondent John Varoli on the Solovyov Live network's show, At Dawn, on Sunday.

The presenter further aired a clip from Saturday Night Live in which Jim Carrey makes fun of Biden brandishing a gun as Ponomar implies the President would rather “shoot his opponents.” According to Ponomar, Biden and the "deep state" are all set to drown the United States and the rest of the globe in blood. Giving his consent to the claim, Varoli alleged, “Joe Biden is a terrorist.”

He went on to say that the government controls the Secret Service and other US intelligence services, absurdly implying that they are “full of liberals” and may have been involved in an attempt on Trump.

As Biden's capacity to serve another term is being questioned, especially following the presidential debate against Trump, Republicans and some Democrats have urged him to withdraw from the race.

Also Read: Donald Trump's decision to pick JD Vance was influenced by 3 key figures and assassination warning: Report

Is Deep State controlling the US?

Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama highlighted Biden's competence on the Fox News program "Sunday Morning Futures," claiming that Democratic politicians and the “deep state” have been controlling the incumbent President.

He alleged that Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Obama have been leading the country along with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “You can tell by Schumer’s actions, Pelosi’s actions, the first two years they were calling the shots.”

He hopes Americans will understand that control is with Schumer and Pelosi and all the deep state and not Biden. “The deep state’s total control over this and hopefully we can get control of it and get the Democrats out of power and get Trump and all the Republicans running this country.”

Here's what experts have to say on Deep State

Experts mostly disregarded claims about the deep state. According to Megan Squire, deputy director for data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, “incidents of political violence spawn conspiracy theories and false narratives when people try to spin the event to suit their various agendas,” as reported by The Washington Post.

David Rohde, an author of In Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth About America’s Deep State, stated that the term “deep state” has been used by Trump and his allies to avoid criticism. He believes that “deep state” is both a true phenomenon and a toxic distraction, as per Vox.

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