Trump has long warned of a government 'deep state.' Now in power, he's
under pressure to expose it
[May 31, 2025]
By ALI SWENSON
NEW YORK (AP) — As he crisscrossed the country in 2024, Donald Trump
pledged to supporters that voting him back into the presidency would be
“our final battle.”
“With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state,” he said
repeatedly on the campaign trail. “We will liberate our country from
these tyrants and villains once and for all.”
Four months into his second term, Trump has continued to stoke dark
theories involving his predecessors and other powerful politicians and
attorneys — most recently raising the specter of nefarious intent behind
former President Joe Biden's use of an autopen to sign papers. The
administration has pledged to reopen investigations and has taken steps
to declassify certain documents, including releasing more than 63,000
pages of records related to the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy. Yet many of Trump’s supporters say it’s not enough.
Some who take him at his word are beginning to get restless as they ask
why his administration, which holds the keys to chasing down these
alleged government secrets, is denying them the evidence and retribution
they expected.
His Justice Department has not yet arrested hordes of “deep state”
actors as some of his supporters had hoped it would, even as the
president has been posting cryptic videos and memes about Democratic
politicians.
“People are tired of not knowing,” conservative commentator Damani
Felder said on podcaster Tim Pool’s show last week. “We actually demand
answers and real transparency. It’s not that hard to deliver.”
A promise to reveal and dismantle the ‘deep state’
Trump has long promised to dismantle the “deep state” — a supposed
secret network of powerful people manipulating government decisions
behind the scenes — to build his base of support, said Yotam Ophir, a
communications professor at the University at Buffalo.
“He built part of this universe, which at the end of the day is a
fictional universe,” he said.
Now that Trump is in power and has stocked loyalists throughout his
administration, his supporters expect all to be revealed. Delivering on
that is difficult when many of the conspiracies he alleged aren’t real,
said Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist who studies conspiracy
theories at the University of Miami.
To be sure, the president has prioritized retribution in his second
administration. He has fired federal workers and targeted law firms he
disfavors in executive orders. He has ordered the revocation of
government security clearances for political rivals and former employees
who dissented during his first term. His Justice Department has fired
prosecutors who investigated him and scrutinized career FBI agents who
investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Even so, Trump’s administration hasn’t gone as far as many of his
supporters would like. They want to see steps taken against people he
has long claimed were involved in sinister plots against him, such as
former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former FBI Director
James Comey. The administration also hasn’t offered proof of the “
egregious crimes ” that Trump claims have corrupted the federal
government for years.
Conspiracy theorists focus on Epstein and Trump's assassination
attempt
Tensions erupted this month when FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy,
Dan Bongino, dismissed two of the unsubstantiated conspiracy theories
that have animated Trump’s base the most — that financier and sexual
abuser Jeffrey Epstein was murdered in a cover-up, and that Trump’s
attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a government plot.
“You know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was,” Patel
said about Epstein's death in a Fox News interview.
“I have seen the whole file,” Bongino added. “He killed himself.”
Conservatives online demanded to see the evidence, pointing to Bongino's
past statements as a podcast host, when he suggested the government was
hiding information about Epstein.
“No matter who gets elected, you get the same foreign policy, you get
the same economic policy, and the Epstein videos remain secret,”
right-wing podcaster and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on his
show.
“They told us for months leading up to the Election that it wasn’t
suicide," Newsmax host Todd Starnes wrote on X.. “But now they tell us
it was suicide.” He added: “Pardon me, but what the heck is going on at
DOJ?”
[to top of second column]
|
Daniel Bongino speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on
Capitol Hill, June 10, 2020, in Washington. (Michael Reynolds/Pool
via AP, File)
Attorney General Pam Bondi said this month that FBI officials were
poring through “tens of thousands” of videos related to Epstein and
would make more materials public once they took steps to protect the
victims.
In the same Fox News interview, Bongino and Patel said they had been
briefed on the attempted assassination of Trump during a rally in
July and there was no explosive conspiracy to be revealed.
“In some of these cases, the ‘there’ you’re looking for is not
there,” Bongino said.
Skepticism among ‘deep state’ believers
Bongino appeared to try to throw a bone to Trump’s base this week
when he announced the agency would reopen some prominent cases that
have attracted public interest. He said the FBI would investigate
the planting of pipe bombs found near the Democratic and Republican
National Committee headquarters in Washington the day of the Jan. 6,
2021, attack, the leak of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson draft
opinion in 2022 that overturned the constitutional right to abortion
and the discovery of cocaine in the White House in 2023.
But it wasn’t enough for everyone who weighed in on his X account.
“Anything to distract from the Epstein files,” one user replied to
his announcement. “No results,” wrote another.
In an interview Thursday on “Fox & Friends,” Bongino teased that the
FBI would soon release video captured outside Epstein's jail cell
and materials related to Trump's attempted assassination.
He said he understands the public's demands for transparency but
called for patience and noted not all information is the FBI's to
declassify. That didn't satisfy everyone who wants answers to the
conspiracy theories.
“I am convinced that the deep state can only be defeated by God at
this point,” Philip Anderson, a right-wing influencer who
participated in the riot at the Capitol, wrote Thursday on X. “Kash
Patel, Dan Bongino, and Pam Bondi are completely useless.”
Promoting conspiracy theories as a tactic to distract
All the while, Trump has continued promoting conspiracy theories on
his Truth Social platform and elsewhere.
He shared a video this month about mysterious deaths allegedly being
linked to the Clinton family and shared someone's image of himself
with former President Barack Obama with the text, “ALL ROADS LEAD TO
OBAMA, RETRUTH IF YOU WANT MILITARY TRIBUNALS.”
Ophir, the University at Buffalo professor, said it's a tactic that
distracts Trump's base and helps inoculate him from criticism.
“When something good happens, it’s because Trump is great and his
agenda is brilliant,” Ophir said. “When something bad happens, it's
because of the Obamas or the Clintons or whatever forces are
undermining him from within Washington.”
Trump this week fueled newer theories, without sharing evidence,
that Biden’s use of a mechanical device called an autopen during his
presidency meant he didn’t sign his executive orders willingly or
that aides profited from controlling it. He has called for people
who operated it to be charged with “TREASON.”
The narrative has gained momentum on the right because of
allegations that Biden's aides covered up his mental and physical
decline. Presidents have used autopens for years to sign certain
documents.
“Whoever used it was usurping the power of the Presidency, and it
should be very easy to find out who that person (or persons) is,”
Trump wrote on Truth Social.
At least one user of his platform was unimpressed and questioned why
Trump and his allies, holding all the power, still didn’t have any
answers.
“IF IT’S EASY,” the commenter posted. “WHY HASN’T YOUR
ADMINISTRATION FOUND THESE CRIMINAL’S ALREADY.”
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
