The “deep state” is a murky and ominous term often suggesting a conspiracy—usually involving intelligence agencies, the armed forces or even judges—to influence policy and undercut democratically elected administrations.
It has been uttered in recent years to describe the situation in Turkey as well as the internal battles faced by governments in Egypt and Pakistan, and now is being used by conservative media and others in the U.S. to describe an alleged cabal intent on wrecking the presidency of Donald Trump.
“There’s no way you can disprove it,” said Cornell Clayton, Washington State University’s Distinguished Professor of Government. “That’s part of the problem.”
Most memorably, the term emerged with theories that U.S. intelligence agencies were involved in the 1963 assassination of President John Kennedy.
The label was also applied to Pentagon resistance in 1973 to President Richard Nixon’s order to ship U.S. military aid to the Israelis during the Yom Kippur War.
When Tukey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan retaliated against those whom he held responsible for a failed coup attempt against him, the phrase was used to delegitimize the bureaucracy.
“What it led to was purges of civil servants with a lot of government experience, who were replaced by loyalists,” explained Clayton, who directs Washington State University’s Foley Institute of Public Policy and Public Service.
For now, the young and inexperienced Trump administration should not be too focused on “deep state”-type conspiracy theories, said a former U.S. Air Force colonel.
“You need to be aware of how to understand and work with a bureaucracy. This is one of the big things that a president and a new administration have to learn how to deal with,” he told VOA.