'The deep state is 100% true': Trump is launching an all-out assault on the US intelligence community
- President Donald Trump is reshaping the top tiers of US intelligence, replacing veteran operatives with his loyalists.
- He is also is stepping up attacks on officials involved in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
- Trump, emboldened since being acquitted in his impeachment trial, appears to have heeded advice from his allies to purge US intelligence agencies.
- In comments Thursday meant to be kept quiet, his chief of staff said "the deep state is 100% true," and said that officials who make Trump's life harder should be ousted.
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In the wake of his impeachment acquittal, President Donald Trump is intensifying up his war against the US intelligence agencies whose probes into allegations of collusion with Russia cast a shadow over his presidency.
On Thursday, The New York Times reported that Trump angrily berated Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire, after learning that an official had briefed a bipartisan group of lawmakers that Russia was meddling in this year's presidential election in a bid to secure Trump's victory.
Trump this week replaced Maguire with loyalist Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany.
He is said to be considering congressional ally Rep. Doug Collins to eventually replace him as full DNI, which requires congressional approval.
Another loyalist appointment followed Grenell: on Thursday, Politico reported that Kash Patel, a National Security Council official who was hostile to former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, had been promoted to advise Grenell.
The Daily Beast reported that two other top officials in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence were departing with Maguire, heightening the appearance of a full-scale purge.
Trump has long complained that a "deep state" of partisan intelligence officials and senior Democrats are conspiring to end his presidency.
He has alleged that not just Mueller's probe, but the impeachment investigation that ended with his acquittal in February are manifestations of the plot.
Trump has seized on attacks by senior former intelligence officials such as James Comey, the FBI director Trump sacked in 2017 for pushing ahead with the Russia probe, and ex-CIA director John Brennan, as further evidence of the narrative.
Both men say they spoke out against Trump because of what they consider his dangerous erosion of US norms.
A group of senior White House officials, including former chief of staff John Kelly, had previously been seen as a moderating influence.
But with many senior administration officials having been replaced by loyalists, or with people in an "acting" capacity who can be easily removed, there is now little pushback.
Acting White House Chief of staff Mick Mulvaney echoed the president's "deep state" rhetoric this week, telling students at Oxford University that the deep state is "100% true."
He argued that the role of government officials is not to defend the integrity of the institutions they work for, but to do the bidding of the president.
Unleashed by his acquittal, Trump has also renewed his attacks on officials behind the Russia probe, encouraged by top allies who've urged him in media appearances to purge the US intelligence agencies they claim are hostile to his agenda.
On Twitter this week, Trump has even floated the idea of suing Mueller.
The attacks have continued despite a report by the Department of Justice's inspector general last December, which found no evidence of political bias in the genesis of the FBI's Russia probe in 2016 (It did highlight irregularities in securing surveillance warrants.)
They gained added urgency this week with the sentencing of former adviser Roger Stone, who lied to Congress and tampered with a witness while under investigation by Mueller.
Trump has attacked the judge in the case, Justice Amy Berman Jackson, and raged about the fact that officials involved in the Mueller probe faced no prosecution. He says his allies found guilty of crimes were unfairly targeted.
Intelligence agencies are meant to be independent of partisan politics, but, especially in the Trump era, have been exposed to political pressure.
Critics say that the president's attacks and counter-investigations were designed to have a chilling effect, deterring further scrutiny of the White House.
Former top intelligence officials, meanwhile, can only rage from the sidelines.
John Brennan, the former CIA chief, warned that the US faced a national security crisis in the wake of Maguire's removal.
"We are now in a full-blown national security crisis," Brennan said.