President Joe Biden is reportedly attempting to sniff out federal bureaucrats installed by and loyal to his predecessor to purge the federal government of Trump supporters.
On his way out, former President Donald Trump appointed dozens of his supporters to government boards and committees and installed many others in career positions within the federal government. The Biden White House is now working to undo Trump’s work, fearing that those Trump supporters may interfere with Biden’s agenda, according to NBC News.
The practice of outgoing presidents installing a number of their supporters into more permanent posts in the federal government, called “burrowing,” is not new or uncommon. Experts approached by NBC News said that Trump’s burrowed officials are different in number and temperament than previous administrations, calling those Trump supporters “dangerous.”
Democrats, Trump critics, and others have attempted to use the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol to taint Trump supporters as a whole. The effort to demonize Trump supporters within the federal government began long before, however. Days after the November election, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called for making a database of Trump administration officials in case they try to “downplay” their ties to the former president.
“Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future? I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Nov. 6.
The Biden administration is now reportedly pursuing Trump supporters within the federal government, and outside experts are encouraging the attempted purge by suggesting Trump loyalists within the federal government are a “threat to democracy.”
“Under the guise of stopping a ‘deep state’ coup that never existed, Trump appears to have tried to create a deep state of his own,” newyorker.com Executive Editor David Rohde, author of “In Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth about America’s ‘Deep State’” told NBC News. Rhode added that Trump’s “burrowing” represented “an existential threat to democracy.”
Project on Government Oversight public policy director Liz Hempowicz added: “Not to be hyperbolic, but the damage some of these people could do is enormous.”
A Biden White House official acknowledged the administration is conducting a review of Trump appointments to federal boards and committees but did not mention a wider review of Trump supporters in the federal bureaucracy.
The administration “is conducting a thorough review of several councils, commissions, and advisory boards,” a White House official told NBC. “As part of that review, we may remove individuals whose continued membership on the board would not serve the public interest.”
Efforts to oust Trump appointees from federal committees and boards were reported in January. As The Daily Wire reported at the time:
Former President Donald Trump left a parting gift before leaving Washington, D.C., that his successor is not happy about: dozens of allies appointed to a variety of government boards and commissions.
President Joe Biden is looking into how his administration may replace a number of Trump appointees to boards such as those overseeing the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and the Air Force Academy, according to Politico. But the people Trump appointed, many at the last minute before his exit from the White House, may be entrenched until their terms are up years later.