2. President Trump was likely skeptical of the established national security apparatus as a result of continual leaks and resistance from the federal bureaucracy.
In the wake of President Trump's electoral victory in 2016, he faced almost immediate intransigence from unelected—and often anonymous—federal employees. Since then, the "Resistance" has protested President Trump and leaked sensitive national security information about the Trump Administration's policies and objectives. In this context, one can see how President Trump would be justifiably skeptical of the national security apparatus.
Since the beginning of the Trump Administration, leaks of sensitive national security information have occurred at unprecedented rate. As the Washington Post noted, "[e]very presidential administration leaks. So far, the Trump White House has gushed."[1] According to an analysis from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in May 2017, the Trump Administration faced about one national security leak per day—flowing seven times faster in the Trump Administration than during the Obama or Bush Administrations.[2] Unelected bureaucrats leaked details about President Trump's private conversations with world leaders and the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.[3]
In Kimberley Strassel's book Resistance (At All Costs), she described the Resistance as "the legions of Americans who were resolutely opposed to the election of Trump, and who remain angrily determined to remove him from office."[4] This resistance included anonymous federal employees who criticized President Trump and his policies on parody U.S. government social media accounts.[5] This resistance included high-level bureaucrats—including then-Acting Attorney General Sally Yates—who openly defied implementing Administration policies.[6] The resistance included an anonymous employee who published an op-ed in the New York Times in September 2018 titled, "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration," detailing how he or she and other unelected bureaucrats were actively working at odds with the President.[7] The op-ed earned the anonymous employee a book deal.[8]
The "Resistance" extended to the U.S. national security apparatus as well, including FBI agents investigating unproven allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.[9] An FBI lawyer working the investigation, and later assigned to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office, texted another FBI employee, "Vive le resistance," in the
- ↑ Paul Farhi, The Trump administration has sprung a leak. Many of them, in fact, Wash. Post, Feb. 5, 2017.
- ↑ Maj. Staff on S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Gov't Affairs, 115th Cong., State Secrets: How An Avalanche Of Media Leaks Is Harming National Security (2017) [hereinafter "HSGAC report"].
- ↑ Id.
- ↑ Kimberley Strassel, Resistance (At All Costs): How Trump Haters Are Breaking America (2019).
- ↑ Kimberley A. Strassel, Whistleblowers and the Real Deep State, Wall St. J., Oct. 11, 2019.
- ↑ Id.
- ↑ I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration, N.Y. Times, Sep. 5, 2018.
- ↑ Alexa Diaz, Anonymous Trump official who wrote 'resistance' op-ed to publish tell-all book, L.A. Times, Oct. 22, 2019.
- ↑ Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III, Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, 1-2. Vol. 1 (2019) [hereinafter "Mueller report"].
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