> It's such a no-brainer since the national security apparatus (the FBI, NSA, etc) were used against Trump and his campaign very transparently.
Except that Trump doesn't even bother to hide his desire to use them even more brazenly than anyone in the past (including Nixon, whose abuses prompted explicit legislative limits) for partisan political purposes; Trump definitely doesn't want to make the existence of a vast security apparatus or its partisan use an issue, only to sell himself as a victim.
> In reality, he doesn't seem to have a deep, principled understanding of the issues of the "national security" apparatus (commonly known as the "deep state").
The "deep state" is more a reference to the permanent official and unofficial establishment of public service as a whole (both the permanent civil service and the network of past and present senior, largely executive, leaders who remain in-the-loop and exert influence even when out of current office); its not particularly associated with the national security apparatus. The use of the term (except as a reference to others using the term directly) is a fairly explicit indicator that the speaker prefers a strong-man rule and factional spoils system to the rule of law and professionalism.
Except that Trump doesn't even bother to hide his desire to use them even more brazenly than anyone in the past (including Nixon, whose abuses prompted explicit legislative limits) for partisan political purposes; Trump definitely doesn't want to make the existence of a vast security apparatus or its partisan use an issue, only to sell himself as a victim.
> In reality, he doesn't seem to have a deep, principled understanding of the issues of the "national security" apparatus (commonly known as the "deep state").
The "deep state" is more a reference to the permanent official and unofficial establishment of public service as a whole (both the permanent civil service and the network of past and present senior, largely executive, leaders who remain in-the-loop and exert influence even when out of current office); its not particularly associated with the national security apparatus. The use of the term (except as a reference to others using the term directly) is a fairly explicit indicator that the speaker prefers a strong-man rule and factional spoils system to the rule of law and professionalism.