Built to Obey: How the Right Engineered America’s Real Deep State

Inside the Real Deep State: Loyalty Over Law, Power Over Country

Earl R Smith II, PhD

For decades, the term "deep state" conjured images of a shadowy bureaucracy working behind the scenes to thwart the will of elected leaders. Popularized in Turkish political discourse and later co-opted by American right-wing figures, the deep state referred to an entrenched, unelected civil service class - particularly in intelligence and national security - resistant to change and loyal only to institutional continuity. In the United States, this narrative found fertile ground after the election of Donald Trump in 2016, as right-wing media figures and politicians claimed that lifelong bureaucrats were plotting to undermine the new administration.

But while the right raged against a mythical liberal cabal within the State Department or FBI, they were quietly building a deep state of their own - a far more dangerous one. It is not an amorphous bureaucracy concerned with continuity, but a highly centralized and obedient machine of sycophants loyal to a single man. The modern American deep state is not made up of pencil-pushing bureaucrats - it’s a political crime family, willing to break laws, manipulate institutions, and abandon the national interest in service to a cult of personality.

And now, that deep state runs the country.

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The Boogeyman Bureaucracy: The Deep State as Right-Wing Rallying Cry

The concept of the "deep state" exploded in American discourse during the early years of Trump’s presidency. It was used to explain away every setback and scandal: the Russia investigation? Deep state. The impeachment over Ukraine? Deep state. Civil servants testifying under oath? Deep state saboteurs.

Figures like Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn weaponized the term, using it to delegitimize government institutions they viewed as obstacles to autocratic power. Trump himself claimed in 2018 that the FBI was full of “dirty cops” and that the intelligence community was acting against him, not as an American president, but as a personal target.

The effect was devastatingly effective. Faith in institutions cratered among conservatives. Supporters were trained to see every critical headline, every subpoena, every criminal indictment not as the rule of law in action - but as proof of conspiracy.

But here's the catch: while Republicans obsessed over a fictional liberal deep state, they were busy hollowing out the real one and replacing it with something far worse.

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From Myth to Reality: The Emergence of the Real Deep State

The modern American deep state is not made up of bureaucrats safeguarding democracy or pursuing left-wing policies, or warring against conservatives. There is, however, a deep state, and it works for Donald Trump! It is composed of loyalists whose singular mission is to protect Donald Trump at all costs - even at the expense of the republic.

It began in earnest during Trump's first term: inspector generals were fired, whistleblowers silenced, U.S. attorneys replaced with cronies, and oversight bodies gutted. But the transformation accelerated after January 20, 2025, when Trump returned to power, this time determined to ensure total loyalty from every corner of government.

Now, the Department of Justice is overseen by men like Jeffrey Clark and Kash Patel, individuals previously linked to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The FBI is being purged of those not sufficiently loyal. The intelligence community is being reshaped to serve political goals, not national security ones.

This new deep state doesn't guard against presidential overreach - it enables it. It doesn’t fear violating norms - it celebrates it. And it doesn’t serve the people - it serves the man.

This model mirrors the bureaucratic loyalty machines seen in Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea - regimes where institutions are shells, and personal allegiance to the leader trumps law, merit, or truth.

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The Epstein Files: Blackmail and Protection as Statecraft?

Perhaps the clearest signal of this new deep state’s emergence lies in the refusal to release the full Epstein files.

Despite public demand and bipartisan calls for transparency, senior officials in the current administration have blocked their release, citing vague “national security” concerns. But the real motive might be simpler and far darker: the files could be highly useful for a criminal undertaking - powerful tools for blackmail, extortion and a protection racket.

Epstein’s network included billionaires, foreign princes, and U.S. politicians. A full release of the files could eliminate the leverage the current regime holds over key players, some of whom may now serve as funders, validators, or silent partners. In Russian mafia parlance, these files are the kompromat that keeps the family together.

If true, that’s not rule-of-law. That’s organized crime and a principal business of the new American deep state.

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Expansion by Design: Gerrymandering and Entrenchment

The deep state does not sustain itself on loyalty alone - it must also rig the game.

In states like Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, aggressive gerrymandering is designed to ensure minority rule for decades. In Texas, a state growing younger and more diverse, Republicans are carving districts to neuter the political power of urban voters. These aren't simply political calculations - they are mechanisms of entrenchment. Tools of the new American deep state.

Historical precedent tells us what comes next. In every authoritarian regime, from Orbán’s Hungary to Putin’s Russia, gerrymandering - or its authoritarian equivalent - ensures that once power is seized, it can never be voted away.

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Looting the Republic: How the Deep State Gets Rich

Deep states don’t just destroy democracies - they bankrupt nations.

In kleptocracies like Russia and Iran, elites enrich themselves through state contracts, embezzlement, and corrupt monopolies. America is now on the same path.

The current administration has funneled federal contracts to loyalists and family members, awarded pardons to political allies, and stripped oversight from federal spending. Major budgetary decisions are now guided not by economic policy, but by loyalty tests. The $3 trillion infrastructure bill passed in 2025 was siphoned into red-state projects with minimal oversight, while blue-state cities saw funds stalled or cut entirely.

This is not governance - it’s plunder.

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Rule of Law in Ruins, Opposition in Retreat

The most dangerous element of the new deep state is its utter contempt for legal norms. Trump has openly called for military tribunals for journalists and weaponized the DOJ against political opponents. Pardons are promised to loyalists, and threats are issued to judges.

And where is the opposition?

Democratic leaders offer statements, tweets, and sternly worded letters, but little else. Court challenges stall in front of judges appointed by the regime. Protests are demonized or ignored. The media, weakened by decades of consolidation, lacks the reach or trust it once held.

The authoritarian playbook is being executed in plain sight - and the opposition is playing by Marquess of Queensberry rules.

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A Real Response: How to Defeat the New American Deep State

If Americans are serious about stopping the rise of this new deep state, they must adopt a new strategy:

1. Radical Transparency – Declassify the Epstein files. Mandate real-time publication of government contracts, meetings, and financial disclosures. Leverage FOIA like a political weapon.

2. Judicial Accountability – Expand the Supreme Court and lower courts to break the ideological lock installed by the right. Impose term limits. Impeach corrupt judges.

3. Structural Reform – End the filibuster, abolish the Electoral College, and pass a new Voting Rights Act that eliminates gerrymandering and guarantees equal representation.

4. Economic Counterattack – Target oligarchic wealth accumulation through aggressive taxation, anti-corruption crackdowns, and public ownership of critical infrastructure.

5. Movement-Building – Stop relying on electoral cycles. Build a permanent, popular, multi-racial democratic movement that can outlast any election.

6. Media Realignment – Fund independent journalism, rebuild local news, and create publicly funded digital platforms that fight disinformation and deepen civic literacy.

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The Deep State Is Real - And It Wears a Red Hat

The deep state isn’t the bureaucratic ghost conservatives warned you about. It’s the political machine they built while you were looking the other way. It doesn’t protect democracy. It devours it. It doesn’t fear accountability. It smothers it. And unless we confront it head-on - with urgency, clarity, and power - it will define the next American century.

We were warned.

Now we must act.

© Earl Smith