Trump talks 'deep state' conspiracy theory again, says he'll break shadow government that treated US 'horribly'
President Donald Trump, the 45th incumbent, is known to be an unconventional leader. He is somebody who is known to be an 'outsider' in America’s political power center and is ready to take on the "deep state". In a recent interview, the Republican said the same and predicted that he would emerge victorious in his war against the "deep state". Trump and his allies have long claimed that there’s a "deep state" or a shadow government that is trying to undermine his presidency. Trump had earlier promised to "drain the swamp" of bureaucracy during his campaign.
Speaking to Sinclair Broadcast's 'Full Measure With Sharyl Attkisson', Trump said: "If it keeps going the way it's going, I have a chance to break the deep state. It's a vicious group of people. It's very bad for our country... And that's never happened before. You happen to be a victim of the deep state. I hate to tell you, whether you know it or not, but they've treated you horribly over the years. And so have they treated many other people. They never thought I was going to win, and then I won. And then they tried to get me out," he added. The main target of the "deep state" assertions by Trump and his allies have been people who have leaked information or the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, something which has been called "witch hunt" by Trump and is currently being scrutinized by US attorney John Durham.
Trump recently hit out at ex-president Barack Obama and his former aides, including former vice president Joe Biden, in the Michael Flynn issue. The former national security adviser had pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation but now says the investigative body set him up. Besides, a recently declassified list of top officials of the Obama administration, who received information against "unmasking" requests that disclosed Flynn's identity, also irked Trump. The president did not hesitate to accuse Obama of indulging in corruption and called the entire episode "Obamagate".
Trump praised his Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell for declassifying the list. He said what Grenell's predecessor Dan Coats and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not do, Grenell did it in just eight weeks. "When you look at what Richard Grenell has done in eight weeks, these people didn't do anything for two and a half years," Trump said.
The president also called his new intelligence chief John Ratcliffe, a Texas Congressman, "fantastic". Ratcliffe, however, denied knowing the meaning of "deep state" during his confirmation hearing before the GOP-controlled Senate on May 5 when he was asked whether he thought there was one in the intelligence community. "I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what that is," he said.
Trump says Biden's political experience doesn't matter
During his interview, Trump spoke about Biden, his likely opponent in the November presidential election, saying his long experience in politics did not matter at the end because of his inconsistent takes. "Well, I would have said experience, but he doesn't really have experience because I don't think he remembers what he did yesterday. So how is that experience? He's been there a long time. He was never known as a smart person," the president said when asked to identify the former vice president’s strongest feature as a competitor.