Terrifying Encounters With the Deep State!
Public misconceptions about federal waste invite tolerance for questionable workarounds to the constitutionally prescribed manner of determining appropriations.
Recently I’ve had several close brushes with oppression in the form of the Deep State!
In March, a friend and I ventured to Russell Cave National Monument in rural northern Alabama. This incredible site has been an intermittent home to Indigenous peoples since 6500 BCE, with artifacts spanning the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods. It’s one of the most complete archaeological records of ancient peoples in the South.
The site is maintained by the National Park Service, and on a chilly but clear morning, we met the “Deep State” in the form of Park Ranger “Mr. E.”
Mr. E is a young man, a few years out of college, an engineer by training, and one of only two rangers who staff the site, which is open 8–5, seven days a week. I asked him why, as an engineer, he chose this career path. He informed me that back in college, while working at a summer nerd camp (alas, the details escape me), he discovered he loved teaching groups of people—especially about arcane skills. Not surprisingly, then, his favorite part of the job is educating visitors to Russell Cave in outdoor demonstrations of ancient (i.e. Indigenous) skills such as archery and atlatl throwing (okay, that doesn’t sound right, but again, the details escape me) and explaining other ancient artifacts. He also enjoys leading tours of the site, which features a couple of nice interpretive trails.
Regrettably, due to staffing shortages, Mr. E rarely gets to do the cool things that prompted him to choose this gig. Instead, he’s usually doing what we found him doing—standing behind a cashier’s table selling National Park merch. That’s because, for most of his work week, he’s the sole worker on site (as he was that day), managing the temporary visitor center (basically a shed, because the Deep State is clever and enjoys cloaking its power in cramped utility structures) while the permanent center, which houses a historical treasure trove of artifacts, remains under repair. The center was originally set to reopen in January 2024, but the reopening has been delayed by budget constraints—until later this year (hopefully).
To top things off, the beautiful short wooden walkway to the cave has also fallen into disrepair, so we could only view the entrance from a distance and through some tree branches. (My photos? Ruined.) . Mr. E hopes the walkway will be repaired by fiscal 2027.
I am a through-and-through National Parks guy—I’m sorry, Deep State guy—and by the end of this summer, I should visit my 100th official National Park System site. I have to admit that my sense of foreboding about my future lost liberties was only reinforced a couple of weeks ago with further encounters with the Deep State in New York City. Freedom-fighting hero that I am, I took it upon myself to investigate and monitor evildoing at several Deep State outposts: Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace and Lower East Side Tenement Museum National Historic Sites; Castle Clinton, Stonewall, and African Burial Ground National Monuments; and Federal Hall National Memorial.
It was hard work, but someone had to do it. You’re welcome.
Some of these sites brazenly featured outwardly adequate staff (Lower East Side Tenement Museum), while others attempted to cloak their machinations by hiding their staff entirely—take, for example, Federal Hall. Federal Hall is the site—though not the original building—of the federal government’s first seat. It’s the place where President Washington took the oath of office. That beautiful building was replaced in the 19th century with a grand Greek Revival-style monument, complete with a huge dome and giant columns. It looks exactly as one (incorrectly) imagines our first Capitol building ought to have looked.
And the place is cavernous, as you can see by the photo I took, displayed at the top of this essay.
In addition to the rotunda (ground floor and elevated walkway), there’s a ground-floor museum, second-floor displays, and an empty, featureless basement that I wandered into–all the while wondering whether I was about to be snatched and thrown into jail for my sleuthing.
I had the run of the place. I encountered, oh, maybe six other tourists (mostly at a distance) over the course of an hour. I was thrilled to avoid the usual throngs of school-group field trips, but as my visit continued the isolation became more puzzling. I began to wonder—and then to worry—whether I literally had the run of the place! For my first twenty minutes, I encountered exactly zero Deep State employees.
Nada.
I began to sincerely contemplate whether I and the few other visitors had slipped in when the place was closed. Did they forget to lock the doors?
Or wait—am I supposed to be giving tours now? I know nothing about the architecture of this place. Why are they doing this to me? It was as if all my school-age nightmares of showing up to a final exam for a class I forgot to attend had suddenly merged with an unexpected civic duty.
Eventually, I encountered a single park ranger (I shall call him Mr. M, for his suspicious-looking mustache) who was shuttling between manning the sizable gift shop and talking to the lone (awkwardly trapped?) visitor in the museum across the hall. I also learned that another employee was ensconced in the basement, taking care of Deep State administrative matters.
I eventually struck up a conversation with Mr. M and asked a question to which I thought I knew the answer: Has Federal Hall suffered serious staffing cutbacks because of DOGE?
His answer surprised me. Mr. M literally shrugged and said, “Nah. This is normal. We’re always shorthanded. We have been for years.” I asked whether he was worried about further cuts, and he claimed the situation was out of his hands. Whatever his private thoughts, he was professional and nonpartisan. Typical Deep State subterfuge.
Okay, time to get boring:
Let me pause the silliness. I recognize that most institutions have budgetary fat to cut. Surely, it’s in the nature of priorities that all commitments are not equally valuable. The same holds true for governments as it does for private organizations. And I, along with other public-minded citizens, welcome constitutional and legal executive attempts to make our federal government more efficient—while maintaining the services our agencies are authorized to perform by law under Congress’s direction.
So I conclude with just two thoughts.
First, efficiency doesn’t simply mean “less.” And it certainly doesn’t mean “ineffective.” From what I could tell at both Russell Cave National Monument and Federal Hall National Memorial, their budgets are already threadbare. An understaffed site (both places) or a site in disrepair (e.g., the Russell Cave walkway) isn’t an efficient system serving the American public—it’s just a slowly corroding one.
Second, the widely held public conception of a bloated federal government rife with fraud, waste, and overreach is simplistic (read: false). Undoubtedly, there is fraud, waste and overreach; I’m not claiming there is none. Still, I have no reason to think that such waste remotely approaches the ginormous amounts commonly bandied about by, well, people who should know better. Whether or not Federal Hall should be a publicly funded memorial is a fair question. But the idea that as a federal institution it is inherently bloated and ripe for massive taxpayer savings? Also false.
These points of public confusion matter. They give rise to perennial frustration among citizens and, as we see in the case of DOGE, they invite tolerance for constitutionally questionable workarounds to the constitutionally prescribed manner of determining appropriations.
I cannot pretend to know either Mr. E or Mr. M well, but I’m persuaded that they’re competent public servants dedicated to administering their respective National Park sites and educating their visitors. Neither of them is trying to rob us of our liberties.
Let’s hope for better—and saner—days ahead for Russell Cave, Federal Hall, and other National Park sites.
But if sanity does not arrive, I’ll be sure to turn off the lights.
If Trump/Musk really wanted to root out fraud and waste they would have started at (and never left) the Pentagon. Instead, Trump put an alcohol-soaked buffoon in charge of the department where more money is sent, and wasted, every year, and unleashed an ignoramus billionaire’s kiddie hackers to kill jobs, ruin lives, and hamstring the ability of agencies/departments to serve “we the people.”
Serious question. Have they found any fraud? I know they have found stuff they dont like such as money spent on trans or gay issues, or saving the lives of brown people, but have they found actual fraud? Note that it should be stuff that DOGE found and not stuff found previously by a govt agency that DOGE just adds to its claims.
Steve
@steve: My FiL assured me that they have found tons of fraud! I asked where the arrests were and got crickets. But he also thinks that James Comer had the goods on Joe Biden despite the, you know, lack of any formal charges of any kind.
US federal government at the start of 2025 had 2.5 million employees. The federal government at the start of 1980 had 2.5 million employees. Because the population of the country increased between 1980 and 2025, those federal employees became more efficient.
At the start of 2025, state governments totaled 5 million and local governments 15 million employees.
If “efficiency” was actually the goal of anything DOGE did, employees at the local level would be targeted. But they’re not – because performative nonsense is Elon’s only skill.
Matt, another podcast recommendation for you: “Geopolitical Economy Report.”
Performative bullshit is action, right?
Only, this isn’t just performative.
Has anyone called the National Park Service the “deep state”? The term usually refers to policy positions. Do you think the work of the National Park Service is typical of federal workers? Do federal workers mostly do trail mainenance and gift shop operations?
As another through-and-through National Parks/Nat’l Forests guy, I thank you for this piece.
This Forbes article is the most recent analysis of DOGE claims I found.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/shaharziv/2025/03/03/doge-check-proxy-added-but-more-doge-savings-tracker-errors-spotted/
There is also this from the NYT (paywall)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/us/politics/doge-contracts-savings.html
DOGE claims to have saved $105B as of 3/2. This is far short of the $1T promised and, if accurate, would result in taxpayers receiving about $130.
Spoiler alert; it ain’t accurate. Also $105B of draconian cuts (again, not accurate) is only about 2.9% of the yearly budget of $3.57T.
Which brings me back to the original piece. I would gladly forfeit my $130 in order to reinstate Parks workers and even more essential personnel… you know, like Air Traffic Controllers.
This “Deep State”…are they in the room with you now???
What has anyone called the Deep State?
Specific examples please.
Just about all fraud and waste is found in government purchases. that’s where bribes come in, and where they are priced into what the government pays. This includes contractors who provide services.
Of course, the Crow & Leo court declared these to be tips and entirely legal.
Drat! Foiled again!
@Mister Bluster:
Here is the Drunk Talk Show Host and current SecDef calling his own people, that he hired and subsequently fired, the Deep State.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/pete-hegseth-defiantly-blames-deep-state-for-pentagon-dysfunction-and-leaks-they-ve-come-for-me-since-day-1/ar-AA1Do7Gd
@Mister Bluster: My familiarity with the term is that the “deep state” is the part that is doing the things that you don’t want other people to have. The specific things vary from person to person and group to group.
Sometimes it’s day care or Head Start, other times it’s visiting nurses or drug treatment, still other times it’s school breakfast and midday snacks. If somebody’s getting something and either you’re not getting it or don’t want it, the “deep state” is up to their elbows in it.
@Fortune:
While I don’t think anyone has seriously suggested that the NPS is the deep state, they have been a subject of rediculous lies by Senior Administrations Officials, in particular Elon Musk. A few weeks ago he suggested they spent 1 billion dollars on a single survey:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-doge-false-claim-billion-dollar-national-park-survey/
But hey, if you want to take clearly tongue-in-cheek hyperbole to make a point literally, then go for it.
No. And, from my experiences working in and around government, the reality is “typical” federal work and workers, especially pre-purges, are really hard to pin down. The reality is, because of the wide range of the services that the Federal Government delivers (for really rational reasons) there are MANY, MANY, MANY different roles that people do in MANY, MANY, MANY different environments.
But I get it, dealing with this moment is really uncomfortable for a lot of us–so not taking these types of posts seriously or finding straw men to ignore the central premise is a powerful coping mechanism.
@Fortune:
Obtuse…
@Matt Bernius: You say the article was tongue-in-cheek and I was making a strawman. To me the article presented a strawman.
@steve:
That’s that question I’ve been asking for weeks.
One would think that Doge would trumpet findings that some person or persons were the subject of referral to Justice for widespread fraud.
Maybe sone fearless WH correspondent will ask for a list of the referrals to Justice. (Or even, “have there been any fraud referrals at all?”
@Matt Bernius: You think the article is tongue-in-cheek and I was making a strawman. To me the article was very close to a strawman.
@Fortune:
Of course you did because you didn’t like where it went.
I just pointed that your strawman response doesn’t make a compelling argument about the article’s strawman nature (for the reasons I laid out).
But I get it, you’re an embarrassed Republican and all too ready to make flimsy excuses rather than seriously consider alternative positions.
But hey, you read positions of people you don’t agree with. That’s a great start. I just wish you were interested in exploring what happens when you take those arguments seriously.
@Steven L. Taylor:
Ah yes, family.
One of my sisters, brought up all the fraud they’re uncovering now. She then barked at me when I pointed out that all we have thus far are unsubstatiated claims of fraud. She said, ‘Trump was never given a chance in his 1st term, now we’re finally going to get answers!’ To which I said, ‘we already know, he hasn’t the evidence of widespread fraud.’ Well, that ended our ‘discussion.’
@al Ameda:
Maybe we can start a counter-conspiracy theory of sorts. Say that the felon could have all those guilty of the fraud the chief nazi has uncovered prosecuted and jailed or executed, but he’s so merciful, such a bleeding heart, that he has chosen not to prosecute, so long as the money is recovered.
The only reason to refrain, is that a bunch of innocent people, most of them citizens, would wind up in a Salvadoran gulag
Yep! I’m a teacher. As are many other DoDEA and BIE employees. Park Rangers are Park Rangers. Customer Service Reps at the IRS and the SSA and and CMS and Dept of Ed talk on the phone to members of the public all day. Human Resources folks do background checks and process payroll and explain employee benefits. The IT Helpdesk folks help the rest of us figure out why we can’t get our VPNs to work. Folks at the VA create prosthetics and run cardiac rehab activities. Etc Etc Etc.
There’s no such thing as a typical Federal worker, outside of the fact that the majority of us are trying to do work that the public relies on in ways they often don’t see on a day to day basis, which makes it easy to believe folks in the media that disparage the work we all collectively do.
@Gavin: Similar metric for comparison is the size of government as a fraction of GDP, and I believe it’s about the same as it was in the 1980s on that score too.
Whenever a new DOGE attack on an agency was announced, my reaction has been, “the government does that? That’s awesome, why would they attack that??” I’m sure JKB and his ilk would find me to be a conformist statist, but honestly I have been impressed with all the things I’ve learned the government was doing, and I’m pretty sad to see it destroyed.
Also, I’m pretty sure that it’s well known exactly how much “fraud, waste and abuse” there is in all the various government agencies, and it’s pretty minimal. If you’re ripping out all of these agencies and their functions it isn’t because they’re wasteful, it’s because you have a different policy vision.
@Fortune:
Better Question:
Do you think that Pete Hegseth’s egregiously wrong and careless actions – to communicate classifed strategic war plans by way of unsecure unencrypted communication platforms, to many people who are not authorized to receive such information – are typical of so-called Deep State support staff in the Defense Department?
It seems to me that ‘Deep State’ staff at the Department of Defense take their jobs more seriously and professionally than Pete Hegseth does.
@Gromitt Gunn:
Therein lies much of the point, as well as why the post is not building strawmen.
When DOGE fires, en masse, probationary employees, many are just different types of people doing an array of jobs, including people in the park service
Via CBS News, for example:
So, yes, Virginia, there is an attack on run-of-the-mill federal workers by this administration.
And of course there’s this:
“Even in the super-competitive telecoms sector, where customers have benefited from lower costs and increasing variety of services over the years, this result holds. A global survey found that ‘privatized sectors perform significantly worse’ than telecom companies remaining in state hands.”
Note that the source is Far Left, but Highly Factual Reporting
It is Thursday Morning (4/24/2025). Are there more than 25 comments on this thread?
ETA: Looks like this thread is current.
@Matt Bernius:
Source: Wikipedia, and I know it’s not scholarly, but my point is this is the common usage of the term. Not the Park Service, or daycare, and anyone pretending otherwise is creating a strawman, or presenting anecdotal information about a group which doesn’t represent the common use of the term.
@Fortune: You are adopting a narrow definition (via Wikipedia) so that you don’t have to deal with the reality of the situation.
We can parse what “deep state” means that same way we can parse what “DEI” means and find out that colloquial usages and precise definitions may not fully coincide.
But instead of arguing over the precise definition of “deep state” you full well know that federal employee have been demonized, and I provided a story about this above.
And if you think that Trump and his allies are using “deep state” in some very specific way, you are a fool. Not to put too fine a point on it, but you are being purposely obtuse.