45th President Donald Trump and allies are planning on replacing the deep state bureaucracy with America First loyalists, according to a new report from Axios.
The report, published on Friday, is part of a new series from the outlet called “Inside Trump ’25,” allegedly set to detail plans for Trump’s second term if he runs and wins the next presidential election in 2024.
Jonathan Swan reported in the piece that the 45th President and his allies are preparing to completely gut the bureaucracy of the deep state, with a plan based on an executive order known as “Schedule F,” which was initially launched just 3 days before the 2020 presidential election, but rescinded by the Biden administration in January of last year.
Schedule F overhauls the power that the President has over federal employees. As part of a normal presidential transition, around 4,000 “political” appointees will be needed to be hired and appointed by the incoming President, including around 1,200 that need to be confirmed by the Senate.
However, this plan would vastly widen the scope to include all federal employees that have influence over policy in some form or another. Approximately 50,000 workers out of the federal workforce of 2 million would likely be classed as Schedule F. These staff are currently very difficult to hire and fire, with strong employment protections, despite their influence.
This would include staff working at the Justice Department, the FBI, the State Department, the Pentagon, and other areas that Trump has marked as being part of “the swamp.” Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, even tried to stop Schedule F by attacking an amendment to the new defense bill. The amendment has currently passed the House, but not the Senate.
Deep State purge!
Deep State purge!
Deep State purge! pic.twitter.com/0KZ9tSm4K7
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 22, 2022
Axios included comment from un-named Trump allies, who said that it would be unlikely that every single employee who fell under the Schedule F provisions would need to be removed, as only removing a small number of “bad apples” would prompt “behavior change” among the rest who would no longer attempt to obstruct policy from the new Trump administration.]
The anonymous Trump allies claimed that the new order would “end the ‘farce’ of a nonpartisan civil service that they say has been filled with activist liberals who have been undermining GOP presidents for decades.”
A number of conservative organizations, including the Center for Renewing America, run by Russ Vought, the former head of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, America First Legal, founded by Stephen Miller, among others.
Outstanding article by Swan–personnel by far was Trump's biggest weakness and this indicates he's learned some valuable lessons. Most of these names would make for a battle-tested and ready administration that will relentlessly disassemble a corrupt DC:https://t.co/2heCpFyP6K
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) July 22, 2022
Vought is planning to release a number of policy papers, designed to dismantle the deep state bureaucracy that opposed Trump, or as he calls it, the “administrative state.”
Associates revealed that he wants to completely revamp the system of security clearances, claiming it was “too onerous” for Trump administration officials to receive them. “We are consciously bringing on the toughest and most courageous fighters with the know-how and credibility to crush the deep state,” Vought told Axios.
Under Stephen Miller’s direction, America First Legal is currently spending its time filing lawsuits to block far left policy at various levels. According to the report, Miller himself is also recruiting legal counsel for a future Trump admin that would not be “cowardly” attorneys “too worried about their Washington reputations to risk throwing their support behind Trump’s policies.”
imagine the possibilities if trump governed the executive branch like FDR or LBJ. could reverse so much rot plaguing the country.
— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) July 22, 2022
Over at the American Moment start-up, led by Saurabh Sharma, the organization is touting that they have 700 “fully vetted” personnel ready and waiting to serve as “America First” staffers, with a hope to have 2000-3000 by the summer of 2024. Some are being drawn from all across the education system.
“Reagan hired young, he hired ideological, and he hired underqualified,” Sharma said. “That gave him an enormous amount of soft power in the conservative movement for 40 years since, and many of those people are still in charge today.”
Trump loyalist John McEntee, who was the head of the Presidential Personnel Office from February 2020, is currently running the Personnel Policy Organization, which Axios claims is functioning as a “quality control” for people hired by other groups.
One person familar with their work told the outlet that they are “developing plans to provide a suite of policies and services to conservative officials and outside advisors to ensure that they are able to stand firm against attacks by the media or left-wing governmental actors, and offensive steps to take against left-wing officials.”
